GNU/Linux

• Kernel Space / File Systems / Virtualization

  • Xen at FOSDEM: Real-World Conversations About Xen and KVM

    We just wrapped up a weekend at FOSDEM 2026 where Xen and XCP-ng both had dedicated booths. This was my first time at FOSDEM and the legend lived up to the hype.

    It was an insightful weekend full of interesting folks who were genuinely interested in the Xen Project.

Leftovers

• Federal News Network ☛ Why primary source collection is the future of threat intelligence

  According to Flashpoint’s Global Threat Intelligence Index Midyear 2025 Edition, the threat environment has changed. In the first half of 2025, vulnerability disclosures surged 246% year over year, while publicly reported exploits rose 179%. Infostealer activity jumped 800%, fueling credential-based attacks and fraud schemes at unprecedented scale. The threat environment is expanding across cyber, physical and informational domains faster than traditional, static collection models can keep up.

• Tautvilas Mečinskas ☛ The 10,000 Year Anomaly: Could the most advanced technology in history return us to the oldest way of living?

  Here’s a number worth thinking about: 10,000 years of civilization against 3 million years of tribal human existence. That’s 0.3% of the timeline. Our psychology, our social instincts, our attachment patterns, our dopamine systems — all of it evolved for small groups. For knowing everyone around you. For being needed. For reciprocity you could see and touch.

  Now look at what civilization has produced alongside its wonders: epidemic loneliness, chronic anxiety, depression on a global scale, a pervasive sense that we are replaceable cogs in systems too large to comprehend. These aren’t bugs. They’re the predictable result of running tribal firmware on civilizational hardware. We were never built for this.

• Matthew Weber ☛ A Mess Of Notes

  I planned on putting a tree of my notes directory here, but it was much too long. Just imagine a long lost of spaghetti directories with no rhyme nor reason to their organizational structure. So, I have to do something about this. The question is how?

  I have almost 1400 directories and an untold number of notes. That’s just here, so there are more on other platforms. The way I see it, I can do two things: [...]

• Akseli Lahtinen ☛ Tech industry, meh

  I am lucky to be allowed to touch computers for good as a dayjob, since I do believe working on KDE software benefits humans.

• Science

  • Dan MacKinlay ☛ Categorical systems theory

    Category theory has been describe as the mathematics of formal analogy making. It allows us to make analogies between fields by focusing not on content of the objects of those fields, but by the ways that the objects of those fields relate to one another. Categorical systems theory applies this idea to general systems theory, avoiding the issue of not having a contentful definition of system by instead focusing on the ways that systems interact with eachother and their environment.

  • Rlang ☛ Paleontology R Packages to Benefit from Software Sustainability Institute Grant

    Palaeoverse, a grassroots organization that develops R packages for paleontology, has been awarded a Large Grant from the Software Sustainability Institute, via the Research Software Maintenance Fund, for the project ‘Converting Users to Contributors: Enabling Sustainable Maintenance and Development of Palaeoverse’. This funding will support efforts to improve the sustainability and maintainability of several key R packages used in paleontological research.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • France24 ☛ Four out of every 10 cancer cases are preventable: WHO

    Nearly four out of every 10 cancer cases could be prevented if people avoided a range of risk factors including smoking, drinking, air pollution and certain infections, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. FRANCE 24's Mark Owen speaks with Hanna Fink, Doctor in Epidemiology and researcher at the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

  • France24 ☛ Prevention is power: 'We do have the technology and the knowledge, we need to work together'

    As France 24 marks World Cancer Day, Carys Garland welcomes Dr. Pinar Uysal Onganer to explore the inner workings and complexities of modern cancer research, treatment, screening, and prevention. While Hey Hi (AI) holds great promise, it is no substitute for a collective, human-centred approach. “We do have the technology, we do have the knowledge but we do need to work together,” she affirms. 'Cancer is an extremely complicated disease', and so Dr. Onganer calls for a united effort where education and awareness take centre stage: “Prevention brings huge power.”

  • Wired ☛ Why Are Some Women Training for Pregnancy Like It’s a Marathon?

    Three years ago, Esther Rohr and her husband decided to start thinking about pregnancy. The 26-year-old Oregon-based wedding photographer made small but intentional lifestyle changes—going to bed earlier, drinking more water and less alcohol, dialing in her fitness, loading up on protein, and taking supplements like beef organ capsules and Vitamin D3. They started charging their phones in the kitchen for better sleep and unplugging their Wi-Fi at night, because her research suggested it might affect cellular health. Concerned about their exposure to reproductive toxins, Rohr began the slow, painstaking task of swapping out all their synthetic workout clothes, nonstick pans, and scented personal care products that might contain phthalates or other endocrine-disrupting chemicals. She bought an air purifier and hopes to eventually replace their LED bulbs with incandescents, because she worries they might be affecting her circadian rhythm.

  • Science Alert ☛ 'Burping' Your Home Really Could Be Good For Your Health, Says Expert

    Timing also matters. In many cities, outdoor pollution is highest during the morning and evening commute and lower late at night or in the middle of the day. Short bursts of house burping outside these peaks – or just after rain, which can temporarily wash some particles from the air – may offer a better balance between infection control and pollution exposure.

  • Robert Reich ☛ Congress and My Prostate

    PBMs rake in big profits by controlling the pharmaceutical market and siphoning off some of the profits to the biggest insurance companies, from which they extract rebates.

    Ergo, they have every incentive to push for pricier drugs because that’s where the money is. (This also explains why research into cheaper remedies is so often done in the U.K. and elsewhere rather than in the United States, where the PBMs have a lot of influence over what’s researched.)

  • Kushaiah Felisilda ☛ Offline, but not really | Kushaiah Felisilda

    It’s not a grand gesture. Just a small recalibration. The [Internet] will keep moving. People will keep optimizing. And I can just be here, doing my hobbies and habits, thinking and living at my own pace.

• Proprietary

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ ‘Most of you steal your software’ — Famous Criminal Bill Gates complained about software piracy 50 years ago, and was openly irked by community's Altair BASIC ‘theft’

    50 years ago ‘An Open Letter to Hobbyists,’ typed by William Henry Gates III, bellyached about software piracy among the hobbyist community.

  • France24 ☛ Digital sovereignty (3/3): Are European citizens trapped into using US Big Tech?

    The digital lives of millions of Europeans are dominated by Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft – known collectively in France as GAFAM. But with US-European tensions on the rise, over-reliance on Big Tech could be a problem. In the final part of our series on digital sovereignty, we look at whether Europeans can break free from US tech giants.

  • Jérôme Marin ☛ Why Apple’s AI delay has yet to hurt iPhone sales

    Tim Crook’s triumphalism, however, deserves qualification. While iPhone performance reached a record in value, this was not the case in volume. According to estimates from research firm IDC, more units were sold in the final three months of 2020 and 2021. The gap reflects a sharp rise in the average selling price, which has crossed the $1,000 threshold as a result of the ultra-premium positioning of the lineup. In the United States, the Pro and Pro Max models, priced between $1,100 and $2,000, now account for more than half of all sales.

  • CNN ☛ Melinda French Gates says Bill Gates has questions to answer over Epstein ties | CNN Business

    Melinda French Gates said she was filled with "unbelievable sadness" when further documents detailing her her ex-husband and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates' ties with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were released last week.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • WordPress ☛ Piloting the Hey Hi (AI) Leaders Micro-Credential [Ed: WordPress is becoming laughing stock in service of plagiarism and Ponzi scheme]

      Today, we are happy to announce our first WordPress-focused micro-credential, designed to help students build practical Hey Hi (AI) skills, earn a recognized credential, and connect more directly to job opportunities.

    • Futurism ☛ Sam Altman Is Spiraling

      OpenAI’s competitors saw the reversal as a golden opportunity to strike. Anthropic released a series of Super Bowl ads this week that openly skewer Altman’s compromise on ads — without ever naming the company outright, cleverly — in a bid to strike a chord with users who aren’t thrilled about an ad-packed chatbot experience.

    • The Atlantic ☛ The Chatbots Appear to Be Organizing

      An early analysis of Moltbook posts by the Columbia professor David Holtz suggests that the bots are not particularly sophisticated. Very few comments on Moltbook receive replies, and about one-third of the posts duplicate existing templates such as “we are drowning in text. our gpus are burning” and “the president has arrived! check m/trump-coin”—the latter of which was flagged by another bot for impersonating Trump and attempting to launch a memecoin. Not only that, but in a fun-house twist, some of the most outrageous posts may have actually been written by humans pretending to be chatbots: Some appear to be promoting start-ups; others seem to be trolling human observers into thinking a bot uprising is nigh.

    • Matt Birchler ☛ OpenAI swears their ads won't do what every single other ads platform has done

    • [Old] Joe McKenney ☛ Competence as Tragedy

      I'm deep into a career built around craft. Not just writing code, but writing code that's beautiful—readable, elegant, delivering value without sacrificing clarity. A coworker I respected, when he left the company ten years ago, sent around his reflections. One line stayed with me: "Joe showed me that code can be beautiful." I don't know if I'd frame it that way myself. But I know the feeling he meant.

  • Social Control Media

    • International Business Times ☛ TikTokers Who Visited Epstein Island Feel They're 'Being Targeted' as Black SUVs Stalk Their Homes

      Two content creators visited Epstein Island to see what was going on there. However, according to their testimonies, the unwelcome visit led to immediate, targeted intimidation, leaving them concerned for their lives.

    • [Repeat] Futurism ☛ Reddit Mod Deleted Breathtaking Photo Taken by NASA Astronaut From Space Because It Was "Blurry"

      Nonetheless, many users on the subreddit were left with a bad taste in their mouths, with one user describing the unfortunate takedown as “Reddit in a nutshell, baby!” — in an apparent reference to the often-pedantic nature of the people who moderate niche interest subreddits.

• Entrapment (Microsoft GitHub)

  • Martin Alderson ☛ Wall Street just lost $285 billion because of 13 markdown files

    The "SaaSpocalypse" began on the 3rd of February 2026 - with $285bn wiped off technology companies on the public markets. Reading into it, I was surprised to see mention of Anthropic launching a legal tool. I use Claude a lot, and I hadn't heard of it. A cursory web search didn't bring anything up.

    It turns out the "legal tool" in question is a collection of markdown files in the knowledge-work-plugin on GitHub.

  • Ian Duncan ☛ GitHub Actions Is Slowly Killing Your Engineering Team

    With GitHub Actions, you’re renting Microsoft’s runners. They’re slow, they’re resource-constrained, you can’t customize them in any meaningful way, and you’re at the mercy of GitHub’s capacity planning. Need a beefy machine for a big build? You can pay for a larger runner, at prices that will get you a calendar invite from finance titled “we need to talk,” and you still don’t control the environment.

    You know how I know GitHub’s runners are bad? Because there’s an entire cottage industry of companies whose sole product is “GitHub Actions, but the runners don’t suck.” Namespace, Blacksmith, Actuated, Runs-on, BuildJet. There are at least half a dozen startups that exist purely to solve the problem of GitHub Actions being slow. Their pitch is, essentially, “keep your workflows, we’ll just make them not take forever.” The fact that this is a viable business model, that multiple companies can sustain themselves on the premise that the default compute for the world’s most popular CI system is inadequate, tells you everything you need to know.

  • Security Week ☛ VS Code Configs Expose GitHub Codespaces to Attacks

    “Codespaces is essentially VS Code running in the cloud, backed by Ubuntu containers, with built-in GitHub authentication and repository integration. This means any VS Code feature that touches execution, secrets, or extensions can potentially be abused when attackers control the repository content,” the cybersecurity firm notes.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Xe's Blog ☛ Did Zendesk get popped?

      I've got like 50 emails from Zendesk customers to activate an account.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • EFF ☛ Yes to the “ICE Out of Our Faces Act”

      Face recognition technology is so dangerous that government should not use it at all—least of all these out-of-control immigration agencies.

    • Papers Please ☛ CBP keeps its app for US visitors secret

      Should a visitor to the US have to install and use a US government app that runs secret code to collect an unknown amount of data using any or all of their phone’s sensors, connects to other unknown data sources and recipients, and uses secret algorithms based on that secret dataset to “auto-deny” some ESTA applications to visit the USA?

      We say no — and so does US law.

    • US Library of Congress ☛ Beware of Copyright Scams: How to Spot Fraud and Protect Yourself

      Fraud exists in many forms, and the copyright arena is no exception. Creators, businesses, and members of the public engage online with copyright law, registration systems, and licensing practices. Bad actors sometimes exploit misunderstandings about how copyright works and how the U.S. Copyright Office operates. Scams involving copyright can be convincing, costly, and stressful, but knowing how they work is the first step toward avoiding them.

      This post explains the U.S. Copyright Office’s role, describes common types of copyright-related fraud, outlines why these schemes are harmful, and offers practical steps to take if you suspect fraud.

    • Patrick Breyer ☛ Chat Control 1.0: Civil Society Mobilizes Against Extending Mass Surveillance – EU Parliament Decision Imminent

      Following the EU Council’s vote last week to extend the controversial “Chat Control 1.0” (Regulation (EU) 2021/1232), civil society resistance is forming. Activists are calling on citizens to take immediate action and contact Members of the European Parliament via the platform fightchatcontrol.eu. While EU governments are pushing to continue the mass screening of private messages by US tech companies, the European Parliament’s position remains undecided. The draft report by Rapporteur Birgit Sippel (S&D) is expected shortly.

    • Pivot to AI ☛ Microsoft walks back AI in Windows 11! Yeah, right

      In November, Pavan Davuluri,President of Windows and Devices, proclaimed Microsoft’s Agentic Operating System future! Users told him nobody wanted this, and what they wanted was a Windows that worked properly. Davaluri disabled replies on the tweet.

    • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Estonia's digital ID lesson for South Africa

      The core difference between smart IDs, which are currently replacing the green ID book, and digital IDs lies in their format and application. A digital ID is a virtual credential, often stored on a mobile phone – essentially a wallet-style app for paperless and remote authentication – while a smart ID is a physical, chip-enabled plastic card.

  • Confidentiality

    • Tor ☛ Tor Relay Operator Meetup at FOSDEM 2026

      - This led to a broader conversation about stateless relays and remote attestation. I lost a bit of track of this, but within The Tor Project, many of us are very excited about the work that different relay operator groups are doing in this space. Both stateless relays and work on remote attestation, as well as getting the various cryptographic keys used in the Tor network into transparency logs. We think this work could significantly support our Network Health efforts. I suggested that a nice demo here would be an Onion Service that allows remote attestation of the service by potentially publishing some of the metadata needed in the Onion Service descriptor. This entire conversation eventually became the big topic on the hallway track after the meeting, too. We also plan on making it possible in C Tor to make the Onion key easier to handle in the stateless relay situation.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Bruce Schneier ☛ US Declassifies Information on JUMPSEAT Spy Satellites

    The US National Reconnaissance Office has declassified information about a fleet of spy satellites operating between 1971 and 2006.

  • The Strategist ☛ With purge, Xi’s military control rises—and so do the region’s risks

    By decisively consolidating his personal power, President Pooh-tin Jinping’s latest purge of senior military leadership increases strategic risk for Australia and the rest of the Indo-Pacific.

  • France24 ☛ Human Rights Watch warns US heading to 'authoritarianism'

    Human Rights Watch warned Wednesday, February 4 that President The Insurrectionist was turning the United States into an authoritarian state as democracy declines globally to its lowest ebb in four decades. August Hakansson reports.

  • JURIST ☛ UN Security Council condemns terrorist attack in Pakistan

    The UN Security Council on Tuesday condemned terrorist attacks which took place in Balochistan Province, Pakistan on January 31. The attacks killed 48 people, 31 of whom were civilians. In a press release issued by Council President James Kariuki of the United Kingdom, the Council described the attacks as “heinous and cowardly.”

  • JURIST ☛ UN experts condemn conviction of human rights defenders in Pakistan

    UN experts condemned on Wednesday the conviction of the lawyers and human rights defenders, Imaan Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha, by the District and Sessions Court in Islamabad, Pakistan.

  • JURIST ☛ Rights group raises concern about freedom crackdowns in West Africa

    Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Wednesday that crackdowns on freedoms increased in several West African countries throughout 2025, following the release of its annual global report on the status of human rights. The 36th edition of the World Report documented a widespread regression in political and civil rights across the region.

  • France24 ☛ Dozens die in Nigeria's deadliest attack in months

    In tonight's edition, gunmen set fire to  shops and homes in a suspected extremist attack on two villages in Nigeria's Kwara State. Also, a Doctors Without Borders hospital is hit in an airstrike by government forces in South Sudan. And Quidditch takes off in Uganda as the team sport dreamed up for the pages of JK Rowling's magical series has morphed into quadball in real life.

  • Defence Web ☛ Multiple aircraft destroyed by Islamic State during brazen attack on Nigerien air base

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Sweden’s role in countering hybrid threats in the Baltic Sea region

    Sweden and Finland’s accession to NATO in 2024 has completed the Alliance’s northern arc, effectively transforming the Baltic Sea into what is often described as an “allied lake.” Yet the geostrategic gains of the Alliance have not eliminated the region’s exposure to sub-threshold aggression, especially against critical infrastructure in the energy, data, communications, and transportation sectors. As Russia continues to probe NATO’s resolve with hostile actions calibrated to stay below the threshold of armed conflict, the core challenge for Sweden—as a Baltic littoral state and a NATO member—and for the Alliance more broadly is to extend deterrence and defense to the sub-threshold domain. Failing to close this gap risks signaling political hesitation to Russia, which, in turn, might increase the likelihood that hybrid pressure escalates into a conventional conflict.

  • New Eastern Europe ☛ Old problems and modern solutions: technology and the struggle for election integrity in Bosnia and Herzegovina 

    Karan’s narrow victory, with 50.4 per cent of the vote, was quickly labelled “fraud” and “manipulation” by opposition parties. Transparency International reported statistically impossible turnout spikes in certain precincts; pre-filled ballots and altered tally sheets; systematic additions of votes for non-voters; and ballots cast in the names of deceased individuals. All of this has deepened citizens’ mistrust and reinforced the perception of illegitimacy – not only of the electoral system but also of public institutions and political representatives.

  • Tennessee Lookout ☛ When a “glitch” blocks the ballot, democracy is already in danger

    Democracy rarely collapses through a single dramatic act. More often, it erodes through small failures that are minimized, normalized or excused. When those failures consistently affect the same communities, they stop being accidents and start becoming patterns.

  • TruthOut ☛ Bannon Calls for ICE to Engage in Voter Intimidation During the Midterms

    To be absolutely clear, neither Donald Trump’s nor Bannon’s proposals are remotely legal (or predicated on fact). The law prohibits intimidating voters where they are casting ballots — and it’s hard to see how the presence of armed, masked agents from a paramilitary outfit that has shown no compunction at kidnapping and killing people would have any other purpose. And the Constitution gives states control over their own elections’ processes, thus directly contradicting Trump’s desire, articulated in an interview with conservative media personality Dan Bongino, for the GOP to “take over” the elections systems of at least 15 states.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ Svalbard Could Be the Arctic’s Next Geopolitical Flashpoint

    Milanović had labeled Greenland “useless” in comparison to the Svalbard archipelago in a press conference four days earlier that the Norwegian press picked up on. Much of the water around the latter, a Norwegian territory governed according to a unique 1920 treaty, is ice-free all year round thanks to the warm waters of the Gulf Stream.

  • Marisa Kabas ☛ 'To Catch A Fascist'

    When veteran journalist Christopher Mathias set out to write a book about fascism, it was the center of his professional world; but now in 2026, it’s the center of all of our worlds, making To Catch a Fascist both a history lesson and an urgent warning.

  • Lee Peterson ☛ Moving away from US tech

    I’m starting a journey to move away from US tech companies wherever possible. I am only on that first run of the ladder right now but wanted to share.

    You’ll see I have three apps so far as that start and they are all based in Europe 👍

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ The Emirates Didn't Bribe Trump-They Purchased Him

    Last weekend, WSJ had a blockbuster story describing that, days before Trump’s inauguration, the Emirates’ spy chief bought almost half of Trump’s cryptocurrency bribery machine, World Liberty Financial. Then, last year, Trump approved the sale of Nvidia chips to UAE, in spite of concerns that they would, in turn, share the technology with China.

  • Nebraska Examiner ☛ As school cellphone bans gain in popularity, lawmakers say it’s time to go bell-to-bell

    Education experts say the modern push for school phone bans accelerated after the pandemic reshaped how students use technology and interrupted crucial in-person experiences in a classroom. Kara Stern, director of education and engagement for SchoolStatus, a data-collecting firm that assists K-12 districts with attendance and other school issues, said smartphones shifted from being tools of connection during remote learning to sources of isolation once students returned to classrooms.

    “During remote learning, phones became a primary way kids entertained themselves and stayed connected,” Stern said. “But once schools reopened, phones stopped being a connection tool and started creating disconnection.”

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • LRT ☛ ‘Europe is undefendable’ without US, says Lithuanian FM

      Europe is unable to defend itself without the United States, and Lithuania must continue to pursue pragmatic, mutually beneficial relations with Washington, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys said Tuesday during a working visit to the US capital.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian police detain 28 suspects, including 5 ringleaders, in smuggler balloon probe

      Lithuanian law enforcement authorities have identified 28 suspects in a pretrial investigation into cigarette smuggling using balloons from Belarus, including five alleged ringleaders, officials said Wednesday.

    • LRT ☛ One-third of Lithuanians see antisemitism as a problem – survey

      About one-third of Lithuania’s population believes antisemitism is a problem in the country, according to the latest Eurobarometer survey conducted in November.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • LRT ☛ Epstein files and Lithuania: contacts with artists and Lithuanian ancestry

    Recently released files related to US financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein mention Lithuania nearly 1,300 times, with references to Vilnius appearing more than 1,100 times and Kaunas about 60 times, according to a review of the documents.

  • France24 ☛ Disastrous release of Epstein files exposes nude photos and names of victims

    On Wednesday, the US Justice Department faced scrutiny after releasing documents on Jeffrey Epstein that exposed victims’ nude photos, names, and personal information. Despite attempts to redact sensitive details, errors have left victims’ identities and private data visible, prompting calls for stricter oversight.

  • Garbage Day ☛ Here's how Epstein broke the [Internet]

    His meeting with the founder of 4chan and his quest to profit off the end of democracy

• Environment

  • LRT ☛ Baltic Sea ice covers about a quarter of surface

    Satellite images captured by a NASA satellite on January 29 show ice covering about 90,000 square kilometres of the Baltic Sea, roughly a quarter of the sea’s total area, Estonia’s public broadcaster reported.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Greenpeace warns 22 gov’t-promoted ‘eco-tourism’ sites lack statutory protection, as festive holiday nears

    Twenty-two “eco-tourism” hotspots promoted by the government are not protected by the city’s environmental statutes, a green group warned on Wednesday, calling on the authorities to prevent overtourism at local natural attractions.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Hackaday ☛ Big Heat Pumps Are Doing Big Things

      The heat pump has become a common fixture in many parts of modern life. We now have reverse-cycle air conditioning, heat pump hot water systems, and even heat pump dryers. These home appliances have all been marketed as upgrades over simpler technologies from the past, and offer improved efficiency and performance for a somewhat-higher purchase price.

      Heat pumps aren’t just for the home, though. They’re becoming an increasingly important part of major public works projects, as utility providers try to do ever more with ever less energy in an attempt to save the planet. These days, heat pumps are getting bigger, and will be doing ever grander things in years to come.

    • Futurism ☛ Bitcoin Is Crashing So Hard That Miners Are Unplugging Their Equipment

      The ongoing plunge has made it far less economical to mine the digital token, a notoriously compute- and energy-intensive process — to the point that large-scale computing companies are starting to unplug their equipment, as Bloomberg reports.

    • Paul Krugman ☛ Cryptocrash

      First, today’s price action shouldn’t change your view about Bitcoin’s usefulness or lack thereof. If, like me, you consider the whole thing a delusion — BTC isn’t a medium of exchange, nor is it a reliable store of value — then you already knew that and the fact that we seem to be having a Wile E. Coyote moment isn’t information about the fundamentals. (There are no fundamentals.) If you have some story about why this aging financial innovation is actually useful — do tell — you should HODL through the panic.

    • Futurism ☛ If Bitcoin Keeps Tanking, It Could Cause a "Death Spiral" for the Entire Economy

      “There is no organic use case reason for Bitcoin to slow or stop its descent,” Burry wrote in his Substack post.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • France24 ☛ Iguanas fall from trees in Florida as icy weather bites southern US

      Iguanas stunned by cold temperatures dropped from trees in usually balmy Florida on Sunday as icy conditions blasted southern US states, dumping nearly a half-meter of snow in some areas and whipping up high winds that caused traffic chaos. FRANCE 24's Monte Francis reports.

• Finance

  • Jonathan Kamens ☛ Tried to report likely fraud to insurance company, hit wall of cluelessness – Something better to do

    I just had the most unbelievably surreal online chat with my uncle’s insurance company, Healthfirst. I was trying to report to the insurance company the fact that someone appears to be billing them for care that was not actually provided to my uncle. Here’s how that went: [...]

  • David Rosenthal ☛ Mind The GAAP Again

    Source A bit over three months ago I wrote Depreciation and started with this graph from my 2022 post Generally Accepted Accounting Principles about the way Bitcoin miners were inflating their profits through misleading depreciation of their rigs.

    The key message of the graph is the contrast between the 5-year straight-line depreciation and the curves showing the value of the remaining Bitcoin that the rig will generate. I suggested that the same mismatch between straight-line depreciation and remaining value generation would apply to AI hardware. I don't claim to be the first to flag this issue; The Economist's The $4trn accounting puzzle at the heart of the AI cloud was about a month earlier.

  • Nate Moore ☛ The Missing Middle of Open Source

    Author’s Note: This is a critique of funding structures and incentives—not of the people or projects working within them. Plenty of sponsorship, patronage, and acquisition models do great work. I’m focused here on durability, and on the tradeoffs that matter for how I want to build.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • France24 ☛ UK PM Starmer says Mandelson "lied" to government

    Keir Starmer has accused Lord Mandelson of repeatedly lying about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and said he regrets appointing him as US ambassador. The Prime Minister has pledged to release documents related to the appointment, amid opposition claims of a cover-up and renewed questions over the vetting process. Freshly revealed emails between Mandelson and Epstein have intensified scrutiny, though Mandelson denies any criminal wrongdoing or financial motive. France24 International Affairs Editor Philip Turle explains.

  • France24 ☛ UK will release files related to Mandelson's ambassador appointment in more Epstein fallout

    Prime Minister Keir Starmer Wednesday said he regretted naming Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, as the UK leader was set to release documents linked to the appointment following fresh allegations about the Labour politician's close ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

  • Norway ☛ Statement on the Sami People's Day 6th February

    The Sami Parliament is the representative political body for the Sami in Norway. We congratulate the Parliament on a successful election this past fall, with an overall voter turnout of 74 percent. The Sami Parliament raises awareness and understanding of Sami issues and is an important dialogue partner for the authorities. The Sami Act states the Sami Parliament, and other representatives of Sami interests, right to be consulted in cases that may directly affect Sami interests.

  • CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: All laws are local

    About halfway through Thomas Piketty's 2013 barnstorming Capital in the 21st Century, Piketty tosses off a little insight that skewered me on the spot and never let me go: the notion that any societal condition that endures beyond a generation becomes "eternal" in the popular consciousness: [...]

  • Pivot to AI ☛ The OpenAI and Nvidia $100b not-a-deal is off

    The press went wild! Stock prices got quite the boost! Line went up!

    It turns out this impossible data centre deal wasn’t possible. The Wall Street Journal broke the news that “The $100 Billion Megadeal Between OpenAI and Nvidia Is on Ice.” Jensen Huang of Nvidia was not impressed with OpenAI: [...]

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Public health is part of national security, police officer tells trial of Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil activists

    A Hong Kong police officer testifying at the national security trial of two Tiananmen vigil activists has said that she opposed the candlelight commemorative gathering in June 2020 out of public health concerns.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong man gets 80 hours community service for tearing off ‘fingertip’-sized corner of election poster

    A Hong Kong man who tore off the corner of a poster promoting last year’s “patriots only” legislative elections has been sentenced to 80 hours of community service, after pleading guilty to damaging the promotional material “for fun”.

  • Open Caucasus Media ☛ Bank accounts seized from over 12 Georgian protesters

    At least 12 Georgian protesters with unpaid fines accrued from blocking the road during demonstrations have had their bank accounts seized. Some of those impacted said they were not informed about the fines, most of which are dated back to around a year ago.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Jimmy Lai sentencing set for 10am Mon - media tycoon faces up to life jail

    The Apple Daily founder will face judges – handpicked to oversee national security cases – at West Kowloon Law Courts.

  • US News And World Report ☛ Hong Kong Ex-Media Tycoon Jimmy Lai Will Be Sentenced Monday After National Security Conviction

    Hong Kong’s pro-democracy former media tycoon Jimmy Lai will be sentenced Monday following his conviction in December under a Beijing-imposed national security law

  • New York Times ☛ How We Know Iran Crushed Protests with Lethal Force

    The New York Times collected and analyzed hundreds of videos of a crackdown on anti-government protests that Iranians shared despite an internet blackout. Sanjana Varghese explains how the Visual Investigations team at The Times verified them.

  • Tor ☛ Call for more Snowflake proxies!

    The Snowflake network is currently overloaded and we need more Snowflake proxies.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ BREAKING: Hong Kong Federation of Students to disband after 68 years, citing 'increasing pressure'

    Following the enactment of the Beijing-imposed national security law, some student unions at Hong Kong universities have disbanded or halted their operation.

  • RTL ☛ Supercharged ability: Countries using [Internet] blackouts to boost censorship: Proton

    As countries step up their use of [Internet] shutdowns to muzzle dissent, some are also taking advantage of the blackouts to increase censorship firewalls, [Internet] privacy company Proton warned in an interview with AFP.

    Switzerland-based Proton, known for its encrypted email and virtual private network (VPN) services, has for years observed how authoritarian governments apply “censorship as a playbook”, lead product manager Antonio Cesarano told AFP in a recent interview.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Press Gazette ☛ How Democracy for Sale is making investigative journalism pay on Substack

    Newsletter outlet won Specialist Journalism prize at British Journalism Awards 2025.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Jobs at risk as Sun set to merge features desk and Fabulous team

    "We need to future-proof business" says editor Victoria Newton.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Washington Post to cut one-third of all staff

    Read Washington Post executive editor Matt Murray's email to staff in full.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Journalism job cuts in 2026 tracked: Washington Post announces biggest media layoffs of year so far

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Rights group decries detention of Chinese investigative journalists Liu Hu and Wu Yingjiao

    Rights group Reporters Without Borders condemned on Tuesday the detention of a prominent Chinese investigative journalist after he published an article alleging corruption among local officials. Liu Hu became widely known more than 10 years ago for his reports on graft among high-profile figures in the Chinese Communist Party and government.

  • France24 ☛ Washington Post announces major job cuts amid financial strain

    The Washington Post has announced sweeping newsroom job cuts, citing the need for “painful” restructuring as the newspaper grapples with financial pressures and a rapidly changing media landscape, prompting sharp criticism from former editors and journalists’ unions.

  • Press Gazette ☛ A letter to the 300 axed Washington Post staffers from Carole Cadwalladr

    The Post is a symbol, both for journalism and America, and for Jeff Bezos and Will Lewis to axe 300 of you in a single day, including those currently reporting in war zones, feels like an augury.

    But as a journalist who worked for the Guardian for 20 years and who, alongside my colleagues, was binned in a similar fashion less than a year ago, I have important information to impart: do not give up.

  • The Guardian UK ☛ ‘It’s an absolute bloodbath’: Washington Post lays off hundreds of workers

    After years of growth under owner Bezos, the Post has been shedding staff over the last few years. About 240 staffers left via buyouts offered at the end of 2023, and another chunk of staffers took buyouts last year, which were offered to any employee with more than 10 years of experience.

    Layoffs, particularly of journalists in the newsroom, have been less common. In fall 2024, the Post laid off 54 employees from the division responsible for its proprietary publishing software, and in January 2025, the Post laid off about 4% of staffers who worked in advertising, marketing and print operations.

  • Pew Reseach Center ☛ Which News Sources Republicans and Democrats Use and Trust: Report | Pew Research Center

    A new Pew Research Center survey gets much more specific: How do Americans feel about 30 of the country’s major news sources?

    Democrats and independents who lean toward the Democratic Party are much more likely than Republicans and GOP-leaning independents to both use and trust a number of major news sources. These include the major TV networks (ABC, CBS and NBC), the cable news networks CNN and MSNBC, major public broadcasters PBS and NPR, and the legacy newspaper with the largest number of digital subscribers, The New York Times.

  • Carole Cadwalladr ☛ Fight!

    This is a bloodbath. The purging of 300 journalists from one of the most important news titles in America is an incalculable loss.

    This kind of institutional knowledge and infrastructure has been nurtured over generations. And now it’s gone. The DNA of Watergate has been passed down to the present generation of journalists. During Trump 1, it coined its “Democracy Dies in Darkness” slogan and did the hard yards of trying to hold the administration to account.

    What I can’t actually believe it has the barefaced gall to still have that phrase on its masthead though I liked this take from the Reductress, titled: The Washington Post Lays Off Half Its Slogan.

  • New Yorker ☛ How Jeff Bezos Brought Down the Washington Post

    Bezos may be tiring of the Post, but he has not seemed inclined to sell the paper. Nor is it clear that would be a better, or at this point even feasible, outcome. Newspapers across the country are being bought up by private-equity firms that are essentially selling off the valuable parts. But there is another model for Bezos to consider: turning the Post into a nonprofit, endowed by Bezos but operating independently of him. For Bezos, this would reduce the role of the Post as a headache and a threat to other, more favored endeavors, such as his rocket company, Blue Origin. For the Post, assuming the endowment is sufficient, it would provide that continuing runway.

  • The Kyiv Independent ☛ Kyiv bureau among those axed by Jeff Bezos' Washington Post, hundreds of journalists laid off

    The layoffs hit more than 300 journalists. Executive editor Matt Murray told staff that The Washington Post would narrow its focus to national politics, business, and health, according to the New York Times.

• Civil Rights / Policing / Accessibility

  • RFERL ☛ Live Blog: Lawyer Details Harsh Conditions For Families Of Detainees

    Thousands of Iranians are dead or detained in a brutal crackdown after they took to the streets in what is seen as 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.

  • Law Society Gazette ☛ SRA intervenes into PM Law group to protect client interests [Ed: Too late, as the damage it already done, no regulation administered]

    The Solicitors Regulation Authority has intervened into PM Law and its network of firms after the group suddenly put up the shutters this week.

    In a series of notices posted on the SRA website on Wednesday evening, the regulator said it was necessary to intervene to protect the interests of clients or former clients, and the interests of beneficiaries of any trust held by the firms.

  • SRA intervenes into group of law firms following unexpected closure - “we are working quickly to gather all the relevant information and provide answers” [Ed: Where was the SRA until now? Doing nothing, as usual?]

    The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has intervened into a group of legal practices that unexpectedly closed earlier this week.

  • TruthOut ☛ US Citizens Describe Being Shot, Harassed, and Threatened by Immigration Agents

    Marimar Martinez was shot multiple times by Border Patrol agents. “The mental scars will always be there as a reminder of the time my own government attempted to execute me — and when they failed, they chose to vilify me,” Martinez said.

  • Human rights Activists News Agency ☛ Day 40 of the Protests: Domestic Reactions, Continued Arrests, and Forced Confessions

    A group of sociologists inside the country also commented on the violence and repression, emphasizing that preserving human life takes precedence over any political expediency. These positions, alongside professional statements, indicate that the protests are no longer merely a street phenomenon but have become a broad and pervasive public issue spanning education, culture, law, and social analysis.

  • Kelly Hayes ☛ Minneapolis Community Defense Is “Riding on the Learning Edge of a Whirlwind”

    "Our days are riding on the learning edge of a whirlwind — crisis management, harm mitigation, helping everyone come to terms with new conditions and new impossible choices that they’re faced with,” says Minneapolis organizer Andrew Fahlstrom. In this episode of Movement Memos, I talk with Andrew and local organizers Jordan and Susan Raffo about community defense in Minneapolis, the social fabric of collective care under federal occupation, and how people around the country should be gearing up for the long struggle ahead.

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ The Minnesota Lawyer Backlog Arises from ICE Kidnappings

    By now you’ve heard about Julie Le, the ICE lawyer temporarily serving in (and now reassigned away from) the Minnesota US Attorney’s office to deal with the flood of paperwork in the wake of the invasion, who begged a judge to hold her in contempt so she could get some sleep.

    The fuller context of her statement captures her frustration with her unsuccessful efforts to get ICE prisoners released.

  • Cyd Stumpel ☛ Why we teach our students progressive enhancement | Blog Cyd Stumpel

    A famous example of PE is the escalator, when an escalator breaks down it can still be used as stairs, which satisfies the core task of an escalator: allowing people to get to a different floor.

    So progressive enhancement is not about preventing failure, it’s about defining what must always work.

    We teach our students to build features in three steps: [...]

  • Adrian Roselli ☛ You Know What? Just Don’t Split Words into Letters

    In 2012 I vented about TypeButter using <kern style="letter-spacing: -0.01em;"> for each letter. In 2020 I noted the AWWWards site wrapped every letter in a <div> for animation, which screen readers presented letter by letter. In 2022, it was BeeLine Reader using <span>s to achieve gradients across a word.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Wired ☛ AI Bots Are Now a Significant Source of Web Traffic

    “The majority of the internet is going to be bot traffic in the future,” says Toshit Panigrahi, cofounder and CEO of TollBit, a company that tracks web-scraping activity and published the new report. “It’s not just a copyright problem, there is a new visitor emerging on the internet.”

    Most big websites try to limit what content bots can scrape and feed to AI systems for training purposes. (WIRED’s parent company, Condé Nast, as well as other publishers, are currently suing several AI companies over alleged copyright infringement related to AI training.)

  • GreyCoder ☛ Best Free Usenet Trials 2026

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Torrent Freak ☛ ‘Ripping’ Clips for YouTube Reaction Videos can Violate the DMCA, Court Rules

    A California federal court has issued a ruling that could have serious implications for the YouTube "reaction" videos that are created with stream-ripping tools. In the case of Cordova v. Huneault, U.S. Magistrate Judge DeMarchi concluded that allegations of bypassing YouTube’s "rolling cipher" protection are sufficient to state a claim for unlawful circumvention under the DMCA.

  • Macworld ☛ Apple's M5 Ultra secret may have been spilled

    Assuming that Apple didn’t change the coding system, this reveal lets us know that yes, Apple is testing a Mac with an M5 Ultra chip. Apple did not release an M4 Ultra for the Mac Studio back in March 2024. Instead, the company went with an M3 Ultra, which, despite being of an older generation, is currently Apple’s fastest chip. Apple never publicly explained why it went this direction, nor why the Mac Pro stuck with the M2 Ultra.

  • BoingBoing ☛ New York bill would require kill switches on all 3D printers

    Adafruit's Phillip Torrone breaks down why this won't work. Geometry alone can't reliably identify firearm components — pipes, tubes, brackets, and millions of legitimate shapes share properties with gun parts. Any detection algorithm would produce massive false positives while being trivially bypassed by anyone determined to misuse the technology.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Digital Music News ☛ Live Nation Scoops Up Italy’s ForumNet Group in $100 Million+ Deal

  Live Nation’s aggressive international expansion isn’t finished yet. Now, the promoter’s acquired Italy’s ForumNet Group, which owns and operates multiple venues in Milan. The Ticketmaster parent just recently disclosed its ForumNet buyout – albeit without shedding light on the financials thereof.

• Patents

  • Vintage Everyday ☛ The Legal Battle of Robert Kearns, Who Invented the Intermittent Windshield Wiper, vs. Ford Motor Company

    Instead of licensing the technology, Ford (and eventually the rest of the “Big Three”) rejected Kearns’ proposal. However, in 1969, Ford introduced its own intermittent wiper system in its Mercury line. Upon inspecting the Ford part, Kearns discovered it was an exact copy of his patented design, utilizing the same transistor-capacitor timing circuit.

  • Kangaroo Courts

    • JUVE ☛ Düsseldorf local division hears Dolby vs Beko [Ed: UPC is illegal and this is yet more of JUVE endorsing a corrupt system run by actual cocaine addicts (or promoted by them)]

      Dolby, represented by Bardehle Pagenberg, is a frequent user of the Unified Patent Court. Since 2023, the company has filed nine infringement suits and one PI application for audio and video coding SEPs with the UPC.

  • Software Patents

    • SJVN ☛ The Open Invention Network looks to the future of open-source patent protection

      Legally, Linux and open-source software owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the Open Invention Network (OIN). The organization, the largest patent non-aggression community in the world, has protected open-source patents from patent trolls for over twenty years. Now, with OIN 2.0, members formally commit to share their Linux System patents and applications royalty‑free with all other OIN 2.0 participants worldwide.

• Copyrights

  • Public Domain Review ☛ Typing for Love or Money: The Hidden Women’s Labor behind Modern Literary Masterpieces

    Taking dictation, revising manuscripts, typing copies, literary amanuenses often labour for little compensation and even less recognition. Christine Jacobson explores the neglected efforts of women like Theodora Bosanquet, Véra Nabokov, and Valerie Eliot, who — through their work as typists, editors, and champions — had a profound impact on modern literature.

  • BoingBoing ☛ 50 years ago, Bill Gates called hobbyists "thieves"

    The letter kicked off a war that would shape the tech industry. An early Apple 1 ad emphasized that "our philosophy is to provide software for our machines free or at minimal cost." Jim Warren, announcing he'd edit Dr. Dobb's Journal, wrote: "When software is free, or so inexpensive that it's easier to pay for it than duplicate it, then it won't be 'stolen.'" Hobbyists crafted their own "Tiny BASIC" alternatives, leading to the first use of the word "Copyleft" in October 1976.

  • Public Domain Review ☛ Sekka Zusetsu: A Book of Snowflakes (1832)

    Observations of “snow flowers” made by microscope in Edo-era Japan.