Leftovers

• Hackaday ☛ Honor Thy Error

  One that keeps haunting me is “Honor thy error as a hidden intention”, which basically boils down to taking a “mistake” and seeing where it leads you if you had meant to do it. I was just now putting the finishing touches on this week’s Hackaday Podcast, and noticed that we have been honoring a mistake for the past 350-something shows. Here’s how it happened.

• Timo Tijhof ☛ John Cleese on Creativity (Transcript)

  The below is transcribed from a 1991 talk by John Cleese titled Creativity in Management. I encourage you to watch the 30-minute recording on YouTube. The delivery is hilarious with great comedic timing that my transcript can’t begin to do justice. I edited the transcript for brevity, and added headings and links.

• Roger Comply ☛ A look at the traffic originating from my Tor Exit relays

  The moment of truth, unfiltered.

  [...]

  DNS queries seem like a more reliable indication of the popularity of your favorite Linux distro than Distrowatch’s infamous ranking.

• Justin Duke ☛ Notes on "How I'd Grow Buttondown"

  Which is to say: most of the advice in Andrea's post is correct and reasonable, and we should do more of it. The reason we don't is not ignorance but prioritization — the ROI on product improvement, for Buttondown's current stage, dwarfs the ROI on marketing optimization. That calculus may change, but to a certain extent we don't want it to — the unit economics and incentives are very clean this way.

• Telex (Hungary) ☛ Telex: Hungarian-born historian who became expert on Lincoln, dies at 86

  Historian Gabor S. Boritt passed away on February 2 in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, not far from Gettysburg College, where he taught for decades. He was born in Budapest during World War II. He survived the Holocaust, participated in the 1956 revolution as a teenager, and then arrived in New York in 1957 as a penniless refugee. He went on to earn a doctorate in history and became one of the world's foremost historians on Abraham Lincoln, while his knowledge of the American Civil War was among the most extensive in academia.

• Science

  • Interesting Engineering ☛ Time crystals could power next-generation ultra-precise quantum clocks

    Now, a new mathematical study suggests that an unusual state of matter known as a time crystal could offer a more stable and potentially simpler way to measure time. It shows that time crystals could, in principle, outperform conventional quantum clock designs in maintaining precision—especially when measuring extremely short time intervals.

  • Chuck Grimmett ☛ LaTeX to Gutenberg conversion

    At work, I forked an old package that converts .tex files to WordPress-compatible HTML and updated it to generate modern Gutenberg markup for the WordPress block editor.

    I’d love help testing it out and identifying the rough edges.

    Here it is: [...]

  • Futurism ☛ Scientists Intrigued as Prominent Star Suddenly Winks Out of Existence

    One star, dubbed M31-2014-DS1, stood out like a sore thumb — brightening in 2015, fading roughly a year later, and eventually disappearing from view, even in optical light.

• Career/Education

  • New York Times ☛ David J. Farber, ‘Grandfather of the Internet,’ Dies at 91

    When Professor Farber started his career in the mid-1950s, at Bell Laboratories, computers were practically islands unto themselves. If they communicated at all, they talked by means of a Teletype or punch card reader down the hall.

    Since then, thanks in part to his work, the realms of communication and computation merged into that one powerful glue for society that is the [Internet]; The New York Times once described him as “an early architect” of it.

  • Mike Rockwell ☛ All in

    Just within the past year we’ve accomplished some major financial milestones that makes all of this possible. The biggest of those was paying off our vehicle and eliminating our student loan debt. Now, we only have our mortgage to worry about — no credit cards, no personal loans, no other debt of any kind.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Niels Provos ☛ I Had to Write a Script to Submit My Medical Claims to Cigna

    A deep dive into automating Cigna's claims portal with AI and browser automation, and how the technical struggles revealed accessibility failures that likely violate federal law. The friction is not accidental but a predictable outcome of a system designed to maximize profit at the expense of patient care.

    I just spent over an hour building a browser automation script to submit 12 medical claims to Cigna. Standard CMS-1500 superbills from my doctors, the kind that every medical office generates, with every required field filled in. The fact that I needed to write code to do this tells you everything about how health insurance works in America.

  • Rlang ☛ Testing for interactions in nonlinear regression

    Factorial experiments are very common in agriculture and they are usually laid down to test for the significance of interactions between experimental factors. For example, genotype assessments may be performed at two different nitrogen fertilisation levels (e.g. high and low) to understand whether the ranking of genotypes depends on nutrient availability. For those of you who are not very much into agriculture, I will only say that such an assessment is relevant, because we need to know whether we can recommend the same genotypes, e.g., both in conventional agriculture (high nitrogen availability) and in organic agriculture (relatively lower nitrogen availability).

  • teleSUR ☛ Puerto Rico Criminalizes Abortion As Murder

    Puerto Rico’s Governor Jenniffer Gonzalez signed Project 923 into the 18-2026 law, criminalizing abortion as murder and drawing strong condemnation from human rights groups, who deem it a gross violation of bodily autonomy and due process.

  • New Yorker ☛ 2026-02-05 [Older] How to Break Up with Your Phone

  • CBC ☛ 2026-02-08 [Older] Doctor, virologist caution against attending large public gatherings if unvaccinated against measles

  • CBC ☛ 2026-02-08 [Older] No desks, no strategy: Experts say government's latest return-to-office order ignores reality

  • CBC ☛ 2026-02-08 [Older] Apartment residents say fatal carbon monoxide poisoning of 11-year-old was preventable

  • CBC ☛ 2026-02-08 [Older] Most of the world doesn’t require a prescription for birth control. Why do Canadians still need one?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-07 [Older] How the Epstein-Barr virus triggers MS in some people

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-06 [Older] Berlin hospitals threatened by spate of attacks

  • CBC ☛ 2026-02-09 [Older] University of Alberta wants to scrap Equity, Diversity and Inclusion from hiring policy [Ed: Hiring blindly instead of quotas]

  • CBC ☛ 2026-02-03 [Older] Gaps in menopause care push some Canadians to pay out of pocket

• Proprietary

  • PC Gamer ☛ 2026-02-06 [Older] Nitrogen’s ransomware can’t be decrypted — even by Nitrogen

  • India Times ☛ Microsoft, Ericsson lead global tech alliance for digital trust

    The alliance ​includes companies such as Anthropic, Amazon Web Services, Alphabet's ​Google, India's Reliance Jio Platforms, Finland's Nokia, Canada's Cohere, Japan's NTT, and Germany's SAP. Its five principles call for strong corporate governance, ethical conduct, secure technology development, adherence to global security standards across supply chains, and support for an open digital environment.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Unmitigated Risk ☛ Agents Are More Like Humans Than Workloads. Here’s Why That Matters for Identity.

      The usual argument goes like this. Agents exercise discretion. They interpret ambiguous input. They pick tools. They sequence actions. They surprise you. Workloads don’t do any of that. Therefore agents need human-style identity.

    • Rui Carmo ☛ The Haves and The Have Nots - Tao of Mac

      William Gibson is, again, right: The future is already here—it’s just not very evenly distributed.

    • Pivot to AI ☛ Let’s vibe-regulate US transport with Gemini!

      You might think making rules requires knowledge, even expertise, and checking the facts on the ground. But the heads of the DOT don’t have time for that nonsense: [...]

    • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Chip shortage hits PCs as AI swallows the world's memory supply

      Lenovo has warned about mounting pressure on PC shipments as a worsening memory-chip shortage grips the industry.

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ AI-fueled chip shortage drives up smartphone prices

      "According to analyses by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) institute, prices for these chips rose by 50% last year," Weber said. As a result, consumers may face not only longer delivery times but also higher prices for electronic and digital devices.

    • Futurism ☛ Blundering Husband Asks Claude AI to "Organize" Wife's PC, Accidentally Erases Her Cherished Family Photos

      When he checked, the photos weren’t in the PC’s trash, and they weren’t in iCloud, either. Luckily for Davidov and his wife, he called Apple support and learned that there was an iCloud feature to restore to an earlier backup point.

    • Nature ☛ When two years of academic work vanished with a single click

      But in August, I temporarily disabled the ‘data consent’ option because I wanted to see whether I would still have access to all of the model’s functions if I did not provide OpenAI with my data. At that moment, all of my chats were permanently deleted and the project folders were emptied — two years of carefully structured academic work disappeared. No warning appeared. There was no undo option. Just a blank page. Fortunately, I had saved partial copies of some conversations and materials, but large parts of my work were lost forever.

      At first, I thought it was a mistake. I tried different browsers, devices and networks. I cleared the cache, reinstalled the app and even changed the settings back and forth. Nothing helped.

    • The Atlantic ☛ Is AI Ruining Music?

      Charlie is joined by Stu Mackenzie, the front man of the prolific Australian band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, to talk about making music in the algorithmic age. From embracing bootleggers to pulling its catalog from Spotify, Mackenzie explains how the band has tried to protect its creative core while the industry transforms around it. Charlie and Stu explore whether we’re witnessing a normal technological shift or something more existential—an era where music is treated as pure commodity.

    • Society for Scholarly Publishing ☛ Guest Post: The Human Heart of Science — Navigating AI Anxiety in the Academic World

      Conversations about AI’s impact mainly focus on efficiency and scale or on policy and ethics. What matters equally is the emotional toll: the exhaustion from daily recalibration, the isolation of not knowing if colleagues share your values, the constant rebuilding of systems we’d just learned. With each adjustment, we lose a bit of our humanity in our work.

      Here I share my thoughts on what’s happening as a scholarly community, and what could preserve the humanity in what we do.

    • Techdirt ☛ News Publishers Are Now Blocking The Internet Archive, And We May All Regret It

      Last fall, I wrote about how the fear of AI was leading us to wall off the open [Internet] in ways that would hurt everyone. At the time, I was worried about how companies were conflating legitimate concerns about bulk AI training with basic web accessibility. Not surprisingly, the situation has gotten worse. Now major news publishers are actively blocking the Internet Archive—one of the most important cultural preservation projects on the [Internet]—because they’re worried AI companies might use it as a sneaky “backdoor” to access their content.

      This is a mistake we’re going to regret for generations.

    • Scoop News Group ☛ State Department is gearing up to ‘roll out agentic AI’

      “We’re going to roll out agentic AI,” State Department CIO Kelly Fletcher said Thursday during the FedScoop-produced GDIT Emerge event in Washington, D.C. “We’re going to continue to embed AI in our systems.”

    • Semafor Inc ☛ The AI bubble will burst. The Middle East isn’t ready.

      Too many players have mistaken the AI boom for a chance to buy credibility rather than to build capability. They have confused announcing initiatives with actually shipping products, treating AI like a branding exercise instead of an operational transformation.

    • Vox ☛ Wikipedia’s fandom is strong in the face of AI

      At the same time, the Washington Post reported in August 2025 that “suspicious edits, and even entirely new articles, with errors, made-up citations and other hallmarks of AI-generated writing keep popping up on the free online encyclopedia,” forcing human editors to find and fix them. And Wikipedia is now working directly with the large language models that many users see it as counterbalancing. In January, the organization announced a new batch of tech companies that will train their AI models using Wikipedia Enterprise, a paid product allowing partners to access its content at scale. This isn’t an unprecedented move, but it raises concerns about the future of the early-[Internet] staple. How will it maintain its human-powered identity amid AI’s chokehold on the [Internet]?

  • Social Control Media

    • Semafor Inc ☛ Rolling Stone scion on investing in ‘Track Star’ and the anti-algorithmic future of music media

      The throughline there, Wenner said on Semafor’s Mixed Signals podcast, is that music fans are tired of being served content on social media that appeals to the “lowest common denominator,” rather than broadening their tastes and introducing them to new artists and sounds — the function Rolling Stone served before algorithmic feeds took over our lives.

    • BIA Net ☛ Sixteen detained over 'laundering OnlyFans income'

      Authorities have seized assets worth 7 million dollars. The operation marks the first time that the revenue earned through adult content is deemed proceeds of crime.

    • People vs Big Tech ☛ Nearly Half of Europeans Want X Banned if it Continues to Break the Law - People vs. Big Tech

      Social media harms continue to top the political agenda, as eight countries – Spain, France, Denmark, Italy, Greece, Finland, Germany, and the United Kingdom – and the European Parliament all consider a social media ban for minors to protect them from “illegal and hateful content”.

      Against this backdrop, the results of this polling demonstrate that European voters are fed up with inaction from their politicians and are ready for someone to lay down the law. If X fails to respond to the Commission’s fine, 70% of respondents were supportive of repercussions [3]. Among those, between 17-28% think that further fines should be given to X, between 23-29% believe X should be banned, and the largest segment - between 40-52% of those in favour of repercussions - believe that the Commission should fine and ban the social media service entirely from the EU [4].

    • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Russia bans WhatsApp

      The move against WhatsApp is the culmination of six months of pressure on the US company and reflects a wider push by the Russian authorities at a time of war to create and control a “sovereign” communications infrastructure in which foreign-owned tech companies submit to local laws or disappear.

      Meta Russia had already been designated as an extremist organisation, and WhatsApp had complained about what it said was an attempt to fully block its service.

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ YouTube, WhatsApp blocked in Russia

      This means that You Tube is no longer accessible in Russia. The WhatsApp domain has also disappeared from Roskomnadzor's servers. The Russian government has also launched a campaign against the messenger app Telegram, leading analysts to say Roskomnadzor is cracking down on platforms beyond its control.

    • EFF ☛ Seven Billion Reasons for Facebook to Abandon its Face Recognition Plans

      This is a bad idea that Meta should abandon. If adopted and released to the public, it would violate the privacy rights of millions of people and cost the company billions of dollars in legal battles.

      Your biometric data, such as your faceprint, are some of the most sensitive pieces of data that a company can collect. Associated risks include mass surveillance, data breach, and discrimination. Adding this technology to glasses on the street also raises safety concerns.

  • Windows TCO / Windows Bot Nets

    • The Record ☛ EU can’t be ‘naive’ about enemies shutting down critical infrastructure, warns tech official

      Speaking at the Munich Cyber Security Conference, European Commission Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen said cyberattacks have become a central tool of modern conflict, often coordinated with physical sabotage, disinformation and economic pressure.

      Europe’s power grids, hospitals, financial systems, satellites and military command networks are all deeply dependent on digital infrastructure — and increasingly exposed, she warned.

    • Dark Reading ☛ Microsoft Under Pressure to Bolster Defenses for BYOVD Attacks

      Threat actors are exploiting security gaps to weaponize Windows drivers and terminate security processes in targeted networks, and there may be no easy fixes in sight.

    • The Record ☛ NATO must impose costs on Russia, China over cyber and hybrid attacks, says deputy chief

      Shekerinska said Moscow and Beijing are drawing their defense industries closer together, exchanging dual-use technologies and investing more in emerging and disruptive capabilities, including offensive cyber tools. She said these operations are often designed to blur responsibility and allow plausible deniability.

      “That makes the whole picture even more challenging,” she said.

      Shekerinska warned that NATO’s adversaries are not only targeting military systems but also trying to degrade critical infrastructure, interfere with government and private services, and spy on Western societies.

• Privatisation/Privateering

  • teleSUR ☛ U.S. Secretly Sent 6,000 Starlink Terminals to Iran

    Since late 2025, the State Department had acquired about 7,000 Starlink terminals, the WSJ said, citing U.S. officials. Trump was aware of the deliveries, authorities told the newspaper, but it was unclear whether he or anyone else directly approved the plan.

• Security

  • The Record ☛ 2026-02-08 [Older] Romania’s oil pipeline operator confirms cyberattack as hackers claim data theft

  • CBC ☛ 2026-02-05 [Older] U.S. seeks to extradite Saskatoon man accused of hacking educational systems to mine crypto

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • 2026-02-08 [Older] Hospital employee snooped in 98 patient records, Saskatchewan privacy commissioner finds

    • 2026-02-08 [Older] Several Dutch agencies suffer major data breach

    • The Verge ☛ Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash

      The Flock partnership was announced last October, but following recent unrest across the country related to ICE activities, public pressure against the Amazon-owned Ring’s involvement with the company started to mount.

      Flock has reportedly allowed ICE and other federal agencies to access its network of surveillance cameras, and influencers across social media have been claiming that Ring is providing a direct link to ICE.

    • The Record ☛ Ring ends partnership plans with Flock days after privacy blowback from Super Bowl ad

      Ring maintains a Community Requests program with another major police surveillance tech company called Axon. Flock, however, has been far more controversial than Axon, and several cities have recently ended contracts with the company after learning that other police departments were searching their databases without authorization or that people were being tracked on behalf of immigration authorities.

    • Nick Heer ☛ Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition to Its Smart Glasses

      For one, it is still considering the scope of which faces its glasses ought to recognize: [...]

    • Ava ☛ pay or okay - is it really?

      Maybe this doesn't sound so bad to you; after all, if they lose out on tracking that generates money, they should be compensated, right? Unfortunately, it's not that easy!

      You see: Not every Pay or Okay system is set up the same way, or even the way it sounds at first. I wouldn't fault you for thinking that paying should mean there's no tracking at all, or only the most essential tracking and no ads, but that's not true. With many websites like The Guardian above, you pay just to opt out of the ads being personalized. You'll still see ads, you'll still have cookies and "similar technologies" (other tracking) being employed against you. Despite paying monthly, your data is still harvested and your reading behavior tracked.

    • New York Times ☛ Ring Ends Deal to Link Neighborhood Cameras After Backlash to Super Bowl Ad

      A commercial about a lost dog being reunited with his family ignited concerns that a “Search Party” feature posed privacy risks. Ring parted ways with the tech company Flock Safety.

    • Futurism ☛ All These Ring Cameras Are Creating a "Surveillance Nightmare," Critics Say

      And sure, you could argue, that wouldn’t be an issue if you simply use the company’s devices on your porch. Not even that’s a safe bet, however. Back in 2022, Consumer Reports found that Ring doorbells could record ambient audio from 20 feet away — allowing them to listen in on pedestrians, neighbors, and in some cases, even in on homeowners who keep their doors or windows open.

    • EFF ☛ Discord Voluntarily Pushes Mandatory Age Verification Despite Recent Data Breach

      Beginning in early March, users who are either (a) estimated by Discord to be under 18, or (b) Discord doesn't have enough information on, may find themselves locked into a “teen-appropriate experience.” That means content filters, age gates, restrictions on direct messages and friend requests, and the inability to speak in “Stage channels,” which are the large-audience audio spaces that power many community events. Discord says most adults may be sorted automatically through a new “age inference” system that relies on account tenure, device and activity data, and broader platform patterns. Those whose age isn’t estimated due to lack of information or who are estimated to not be adults will be asked to scan their face or upload a government ID through a third-party vendor if they want to avoid the default teen account restrictions.

    • Techdirt ☛ Cops Criticize Flock Safety After It’s Caught Handing Out Access To Federal Agencies

      Flock has been swimming in a cesspool of its own making for several months now, thanks to it being the public face of “How To Hunt Down Someone Who Wanted An Abortion.” That debacle was followed by even more negative press (and congressional rebuke) for its apparent unwillingness to place any limits at all on access to the hundreds of millions of license plate records its cameras have captured, including those owned by private individuals.

  • Confidentiality

    • CBC ☛ 2026-02-04 [Older] Nearly 1,300 customers affected by Canada Computers data breach, company says

    • 2026-02-05 [Older] Two Ivy League universities had donor information breaches. Will donors be notified?

    • Advance Local Media LLC ☛ 2026-02-04 [Older] Former Nuance Communications employee facing more charges in 2023 Geisinger data breach case

    • 2026-02-04 [Older] Don’t panic:0apt’s listings and data leaks are fakes — Researchers

    • Information Security Media Group, Corporation ☛ 2026-02-08 [Older] Some good news: downstream victims of mass data theft campaigns are less likely to pay — incident responders

    • SCMP ☛ Hong Kong plans to revive privacy law requiring firms to report data breaches

      Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog plans to consult lawmakers this year about introducing mandatory data breach reporting and related penalties, the body’s chief has said.

      Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data Ada Chung Lai-ling on Saturday revealed details about the proposed legislative amendments to the city’s privacy ordinance, after authorities stalled the plan in 2024 over concerns the measures could hurt the local business environment.

      “We really hope that we have some specific recommendations this year, so we can consult the Legislative Council,” Chung said in a televised interview, adding the measures could be carried out in phases.

    • Dhole Moments ☛ Is End-to-End Encryption Optional For Large Groups? - Dhole Moments

      She then followed this up with a second post, pointing to this news story, highlighting the dangers of overconfidence in your encrypted messaging software with large numbers of hard-to-vet participants.

      Her overall argument is a simple one to understand, and is congruent to the one I made in my previous post: You cannot hope to replace Discord for the overwhelming majority of its users if you don’t even know what Discord is for them. The user experience is more important to adoption than federation or even encryption. You don’t need to build infrastructure for “planning the revolution” to replace Discord.

      While everything 0xabad1dea said is true, we need to stop and ask, “Why is Discord even pushing for age verification to begin with?”

• Defence/Aggression

  • Digital Music News ☛ TikTok US Launches Opt-In Local Feed for Precise Location

    According to TikTok, the Local Feed is intended to help users stay connected to their local community, showing posts based on location, content topic, and when they were posted. That aims to make it a more up-to-date feed of local information, such as new restaurant openings, local concerts, and other events.

  • TechCrunch ☛ TikTok launches an opt-in Local Feed in the US leveraging users' precise location

    The new feature also ties into TikTok’s push to attract small businesses to its app, not only as content producers but as advertisers. This could help insulate it against further regulation and help it to claim, as Meta does, that it should not be reigned in because so many small businesses rely on its services to reach their customers.

  • Vox ☛ JB Pritzker talks ICE, Trump, and 2028

    Few Democratic politicians have leaned into the fight against the Trump administration as aggressively as Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. While some blue-state leaders have tried to find a lane of compromise or quiet resistance, Pritzker has gone the other direction — signing laws to limit ICE operations in the state, creating the Illinois Accountability Commission staffed by retired federal judges, suing the federal government, and successfully blocking the deployment of federalized National Guard troops on Chicago’s streets.

    Pritzker has turned Illinois into a test case for what organized state-level opposition to President Donald Trump’s administration looks like — and has modeled a playbook he hopes other blue-state governors can follow.

  • TruthOut ☛ DHS System for Confirming Voter Citizenship Is Making Widespread Mistakes

    But an examination of SAVE’s rollout by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune reveals that DHS rushed the revamped tool into use while it was still adding data and before it could discern voters’ most up-to-date citizenship information.

    As a result, SAVE has made persistent mistakes, particularly in assessing the status of people born outside the U.S., data gathered from local election administrators, interviews and emails obtained via public records requests show. Some of those people subsequently become U.S. citizens, a step that the system doesn’t always pick up.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ Ending the Surge in Minnesota Isn’t Enough

    It’s good that the federal occupation of Minnesota is ending. But the Trump administration shouldn’t be allowed to pretend it never happened. Justice would require a wave of impeachments, criminal charges, and restitution to the people of the Twin Cities.

  • The Kyiv Independent ☛ Using Starlink ruse, Ukrainian cyber forces trick Russian soldiers into revealing positions, donating to armed forces

    A Ukrainian cyber unit claims it tricked Russian soldiers into revealing their positions and donating money to Ukraine's Armed Forces by pretending to help them reconnect Starlink devices they were using on the battlefield.

    Russian forces have long been using unauthorized Starlink access to operate drones and other military equipment in occupied areas of Ukraine, but this was effectively switched off last week after the Ukrainian government, in cooperation with SpaceX, introduced a mandatory registration and "whitelist system.

  • RTL ☛ Rapid rise: All-in on AI: what TikTok creator ByteDance did next

    While the Beijing-based company has been embroiled in a range of legal and privacy rows linked to the social media app for years, its team has been busy branching out developing new cutting-edge products.

    Among them is China’s most popular artificial intelligence chatbot, Doubao, which has built up more than 100 million daily users since its inception in 2023.

  • CBC ☛ 2026-02-05 [Older] Quebec teen faces terrorism charge after allegedly promoting neo-Nazi group ideology

  • CBC ☛ 2026-02-05 [Older] Toronto police officers accused of leaking information to 'key' organized crime figure after corruption probe

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-09 [Older] Australia: Israeli president visits Bondi Beach attack site

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-09 [Older] Christchurch mosque shooter appeals guilty plea, sentence

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-09 [Older] EU seeks self-reliance as US, China dominate defense sector

  • Counter Punch ☛ 2026-02-05 [Older] Canada’s Pivot is a Warning to the US and the Entire Alliance System

  • CBC ☛ 2026-02-05 [Older] NATO's new defence target could mean $63B federal deficit, PBO warns

  • Scheerpost ☛ 2026-02-08 [Older] Collapsing Empire: US Bows To African Revolutionaries

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-09 [Older] Migrants from Africa brave deadly Canary Islands crossing

  • Defence Web ☛ 2026-02-08 [Older] South Africa withdraws SANDF troop contribution to UN’s mission in the DRC

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-07 [Older] Greenland, Denmark say US talks positive but future unclear

  • Copenhagen Post ☛ 2026-02-07 [Older] France, Canada open consulates amid backlash to U.S. Greenland bid

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-07 [Older] Pakistan: IS affiliate group claims Islamabad mosque bombing

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-07 [Older] Sudan: Suspected RSF drone attack on aid convoy kills dozens

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-07 [Older] Italian police probe 'sabotage' on rail lines to Olympics

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-07 [Older] Article 42.7: Are EU states compelled to collective defense?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-07 [Older] Families call for truth on Kosovo War's missing people

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-09 [Older] Iran: Reformists arrested as crackdown on dissent widens

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-09 [Older] Japan election win improves Takaichi's foreign-policy hand

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • International Business Times ☛ Jeffrey Epstein Understudy Rumoured To Influence Powerful Figures While Remaining in Shadows

    Eyewitnesses and whistleblowers claim that the Jeffrey Epstein understudy has maintained connections with wealthy elites and high-profile social circles. Video evidence reviewed in a YouTube discussion suggests a continuity of influence that mirrors Epstein's own network, though the understudy remains largely anonymous.

    This hidden figure is said to possess intricate knowledge of the mechanisms Epstein used to manipulate power structures. Allegedly, they are exploiting similar channels to exert control without attracting the same level of scrutiny.

  • The Verge ☛ Jikipedia turns Epstein’s emails into an encyclopedia of his powerful friends

    The folks behind Jmail are at it again with a clone of Wikipedia that turns the treasure trove of data in Epstein’s emails into detailed dossiers on his associates. Entries include known visits to Epstein’s properties, possible knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, and laws that they might have broken. The reports are dense, listing how many emails they exchanged with Epstein, basic biographical information, and details about how they’re connected.

  • Meduza ☛ A Russian blogger documented horrific conditions at a local morgue — and police promptly beat him up and threw him in jail

    A blogger in Siberia faces criminal charges after posting a video documenting unsanitary conditions at a morgue, according to a lawyer familiar with the case. Artem Pavlechko, who lives in the city of Tulun in the Irkutsk region, has been charged with violating privacy laws, according to his lawyer, Anna Anufrieva. State investigators confirmed that a 34-year-old man is suspected of illegally sharing private details about a doctor, including his home address, in a video posted in January to VKontakte, Russia’s largest social network.

  • New Yorker ☛ The Epstein Files Reveal What Trump Knew

    The millions of documents recently (and chaotically) released by the Department of Justice have left Americans reading myriad e-mails and text messages that seem to describe, in their aggregate, a range of élites eager to curry favor with a criminal beyond the imaginings of the police blotter or the Marquis de Sade. The dreadful cast includes Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Steve Bannon, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Ehud Barak, as well as various Wall Street wizards and real-estate magnates. And yet Brown’s main focus is on the names that fewer people know: the many girls and women who were treated for years with such cruelty.

    When I spoke with Brown last week for The New Yorker Radio Hour, she was just about to publish an article in the Herald about President Trump’s telephone call to the Palm Beach police chief around the time of Epstein’s arrest in 2006. Our conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

• Environment

  • RTL ☛ 'We have the investors back': World copper rush promises new riches for Zambia

    Surging demand from the artificial intelligence, green energy and defence sectors has exponentially boosted demand for the workhorse metal that underpins power grids, data centres and electric vehicles.

    The scramble for copper exposes geopolitical rivalries as industrial heavyweights -- including China, the United States, Canada, Europe, India and Gulf states -- compete to secure supplies.

  • Omicron Limited ☛ One of the ocean's saltiest regions is freshening: What it means for circulation

    The changes could alter the interactions between the ocean and the atmosphere, disrupt major ocean circulation systems that help regulate climates around the world, and potentially affect marine ecosystems.

    "We're seeing a large-scale shift of how freshwater moves through the ocean," said Weiqing Han, professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. "It's happening in a region that plays a key role in global ocean circulation."

  • Energy Mix Productions Inc ☛ Canada Not on Track to Hit Net-Zero by 2050, or Meet Any Climate Targets: Study

    That “slackening” includes the elimination of federal consumer carbon pricing, the conclusion of green home retrofit funding and the cancellation of the oil and gas emissions cap, the report says. Provincially, Alberta and Saskatchewan both weakened and suspended their industrial carbon prices, and Ontario repealed its climate accountability legislation.

  • Michigan Advance ☛ Rep. Dingell calls endangerment finding repeal ‘unlawful,’ promises to fight in Congress

    “The endangerment finding was rooted in an overwhelming body of scientific evidence that illustrates how greenhouse gases threaten public health,” said Deirdre Nieves, the director of climate solutions and justice for the West Michigan Environmental Action Council. “Removing it does not change the science. It only denies our willingness to act on it. Human driven climate change is not a political theory. It is a measurable disruption of the Earth’s natural climate systems and cycles.”

  • Science News ☛ A sea turtle boom may be hiding a population collapse

    The authors hypothesize that the extreme skew toward female loggerheads (Caretta caretta) that go on to lay eggs inflates the nest count, making the population seem healthier than it is. Without enough males to sustain breeding, population growth could quickly vanish, though it’s hard to predict when this tipping point could arrive.

  • Truthdig ☛ Donald Trump Just Killed the EPA’s Ability to Fight Climate Change

    But the administration’s move may well backfire. Legal experts say that regulating carbon dioxide is well-supported by the text of the Clean Air Act — a fact that even the conservative Supreme Court has recognized in multiple cases, suggesting the court could rule against the administration if the repeal winds up on their docket. (A coalition of health groups has already announced its intent to sue.) And even if the court did affirm that the federal government can no longer regulate greenhouse gases under existing law, states and private parties would have an open lane to set their own greenhouse gas rules or sue over the harms caused by climate change, respectively, given that they would no longer be preempted by federal authority. That would create regulatory chaos, potentially forcing Congress to restore the EPA’s authority.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-09 [Older] Spain: Rail strike begins as drivers protest safety failures

    • CBC ☛ 2026-02-03 [Older] How a new, more sustainable lithium mining process could kick off the industry in Western Canada

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2026-02-04 [Older] Venezuelan Expats Who Helped Propel Canada Oil Sands Growth See Return Home as Unlikely

    • CBC ☛ 2026-02-02 [Older] Auto production by Detroit Three declines in Canada as Japanese automakers lead the way, report says

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-06 [Older] China grows while Europe slows in South American EV market

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-06 [Older] Berlin airport halts takeoffs, landings for second day

    • The Hindu ☛ Telangana begins retrofitting diesel buses to electric for greener transport

      The State-run transport undertaking had called for tender for retrofitting old diesel buses into electric buses on September 15, 2025. As a next step, the corporation will entrust the conversion of 200 buses to Sai Green Mobility and another 40 buses to Kalyani Power Train Limited.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • CBC ☛ 2026-02-04 [Older] Scientist using dogs in controversial study explains for the first time what was going on

    • CBC ☛ 2026-02-04 [Older] Quebec fisherman reels in 244-pound, record-breaking Atlantic halibut — for science

  • Overpopulation

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China cracks down on anti-marriage social media content

      The statement said major social media platforms would be urged to establish task forces, strengthen staffing and increase online inspections, particularly during the upcoming nine-day holiday.

    • Los Angeles Times ☛ Western states miss key deadline as Colorado River impasse persists

      Babbitt said he believes it would be a mistake for Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to “try to impose a long-term solution” by ordering major water cuts across the Southwest — which would likely set off a lengthy court battle.

    • Nevada Current ☛ Colorado River states miss deadline, compromise nowhere in sight

      Negotiators for the Lower Basin states — Nevada, Arizona, and California — and Upper Basin states — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming — have been at an impasse for months on a compromise plan that could replace the river’s operating guidelines set to expire at the end of 2026.

• Finance

  • Lexmark confirms layoffs in Lexington. Officials won’t say how many people let go

    Lexmark was spun out of IBM in the 1990s to house that company’s printers division, which was already operating and manufacturing products in Lexington under IBM.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-09 [Older] Global economy needs nature to thrive

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-07 [Older] Washington Post publisher resigns after job cut uproar

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-07 [Older] US, India unveil interim trade deal framework

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-07 [Older] US oil blockade: How long before Cuba collapses?

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2026-02-05 [Older] Canada's Carney Wins Admiration Globally but Struggles to Lower Food Costs at Home

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Grafana Labs reportedly raising funding at $9B valuation

    Grafana Labs sells an observability platform based on the open-source Grafana project. The latter software can collect telemetry from a company’s infrastructure and turn it into monitoring dashboards. An online retailer, for example, could create a dashboard that tracks the performance of its e-commerce website and detects downtime.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-09 [Older] Sweden to raise hurdles to gaining citizenship

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-08 [Older] Portugal: Socialist Seguro wins big in presidential election

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Beijing vows 'measures' after CIA Chinese-language recruitment ad

      The CIA’s Chinese-language video, published on the agency’s YouTube channel on Thursday, appears to target disaffected officers and appeals for information on China’s leaders and armed forces.

    • Meduza ☛ Putin’s ‘Temple of War’ was just the beginning. Russia is building churches, mosques, and even underground chapels to convince the nation that the invasion of Ukraine is sacred.

      ”The Temple of War: People and Ideas That Made the Russian Invasion Possible,” by historian Ilia Venyavkin, profiles the figures who helped Vladimir Putin prime Russians for the attack on Ukraine. Venyavkin cites a visit to the Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces in Patriot Park as a primary catalyst for the book. The cathedral, as Venyavkin writes in the preface, was built on Putin’s orders but “had been developing in Russian political culture for many years.” The historian draws a parallel to the Russian–Ukrainian war: Putin personally gave the order for the invasion, but the heroes of Moscow’s “Temple of War” — from Army General Sergey Surovikin to RT propagandist Margarita Simonyan — manufactured the public consent that made it possible.

    • The Nation ☛ The Antidemocratic Zealots Presiding Over Trump’s Makeover of US History

      Normally, the NPF backs improvements on park lands, such as habitat restoration and trail renovation. But Trump has remade the NPF into a de facto PR operation for the White House’s political projects.

      This makeover has mostly been the handiwork of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who serves as ex-officio director of the NPF board. Burgum swiftly set about stacking the board with Trump loyalists, including top Trump fundraiser Meredith O’Rourke and Chris LaCivita, Trump’s 2024 campaign co-manager. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, NPF isn’t required under federal tax law to disclose its donors and is even empowered to grant donors anonymity. Donations to the foundation are also tax-deductible—an added bonus for anyone seeking access to Trump’s fundraising ecosystem.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Meduza ☛ Russia killed opposition leader Alexey Navalny using a rare dart frog toxin, five European countries say

    Representatives of five countries — the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany, and the Netherlands — whose laboratories examined Navalny’s samples have issued a joint statement accusing Russia of violating the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). The statement, coordinated by the five countries’ foreign ministers and published on the British government’s website, stresses that natural exposure to epibatidine in Russia is impossible.

  • Court House News ☛ Russia poisoned Alexei Navalny with dart frog toxin, European nations say

    Navalny, who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests as President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, died in an Arctic penal colony on Feb. 16, 2024, while serving a 19-year sentence that he believed to be politically motivated.

    “Russia saw Navalny as a threat,” British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said. “By using this form of poison the Russian state demonstrated the despicable tools it has at its disposal and the overwhelming fear it has of political opposition.”

  • The Spectator Ltd ☛ Why Erdogan wants to help Iran

    An Iranian dissident journalist, Kaveh Taheri, was arrested by Turkish police on 26 January and sent to a deportation centre. He had lived in Turkey for 13 years and was awaiting a humanitarian visa for Europe. The authorities may now deport him for ‘posing a threat to Turkish national security’.

    ‘If they deport Kaveh, the regime will execute him. I am 100 per cent sure,’ an Iranian who knows him well tells me on the phone.

    Saeid Soltani (not his real name) is another Iranian dissident who has been living in Istanbul for many years. He fled Iran after he was repeatedly jailed for his journalistic work and activism. His crime was campaigning against underage children being given the death sentence.

  • BIA Net ☛ Student access blocked, police deployed ahead of Erdoğan's visit to Boğaziçi University

    While students began gathering on the North Campus to protest, riot police units were seen positioned at the campus gate. The possibility of a police intervention has further escalated tensions.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Student who urged Tai Po fire probe says CUHK expelled him

    “I was never informed of the acts of misconduct that I allegedly committed before or during the meeting,” he told HKFP in Cantonese. “It was impossible for me to prove my innocence.”

    “When I asked [about the allegations], they said: ‘We are the ones who can ask you questions, not the other way around.’”

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ Contributor: Free speech is valuable, but only when it leads us toward the truth

    The free-speech-as-highest-good view also misunderstands the purpose of free speech in a free society at an even more fundamental level.

    Legal systems of free speech do not exist to bestow legitimacy on the idiosyncratic musings of any individual. To borrow progressive jargon, we don’t maintain systems of free speech to protect and secure “your truth” or “my truth.” Rather, as was historically understood as far back as Plato’s Academy in ancient Athens, we maintain systems of free speech and free questioning because we believe it is helpful in pursuing The Truth. In bilateral or multilateral colloquy, it is the truth of the matter with which we are primarily interested — not ensuring that any individual feels heard or seen.

  • New York Times ☛ ICE Agents Menaced Minnesota Protesters at Their Homes, Filings Say

    “They just came over to intimidate me,” Mr. Woo said in an interview this week. “To say, ‘We know where you live.’”

    His was not an isolated experience. Among nearly 100 sworn statements filed in federal court on Friday are more than a dozen accounts like Mr. Woo’s, in which federal agents deployed to Minnesota singled out protesters, finding the addresses of their homes and showing up there.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ DOJ drops appeal of order blocking $1.2-billion UCLA settlement

    The Trump administration abandoned its appeal of a court order blocking its proposal for UCLA to pay a $1.2-billion settlement over alleged civil rights violations.

    Despite dropping the appeal, the administration continues investigating the UC system and other campuses as part of its campaign to reshape higher education.

  • Kentucky Lantern ☛ Advancing bill would criminalize 'harassing' law enforcement, ICE agents and medics • Kentucky Lantern

    Sen. Matt Nunn, R-Sadieville, the primary sponsor of Senate Bill 104, told members of the Senate Veterans, Military Affairs, and Public Protection Committee his bill is intended to “ensure that the people who protect and serve our commonwealth every day can do so without any interference, any impediments.”

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • CPJ ☛ 2026-02-06 [Older] Jimmy Lai, 6 Apple Daily execs to be sentenced in Hong Kong’s biggest media trial

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-02-09 [Older] Hong Kong media dealt blow by Jimmy Lai’s 20-year sentence

  • JURIST ☛ Journalist Don Lemon pleads not guilty in Minnesota first amendment case

    Lemon, independent journalist Georgia Fort, and seven others were indicted on charges of Conspiracy Against Right of Religious Freedom, 18 USC § 241, and with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, 18 U.S.C. § 248(a)(2).

  • Karl Bode ☛ The Media Can't Stop Propping Up Elon Musk's Phony Supergenius Engineer Mythology

    There's a few rules for this brand of journalism. One, you can't include any useful context that might shed helpful light on whether what the executive is saying is true. Two, it's important to make sure you never include a quote from an objective academic or expert in the field you're covering that might challenge the CEO.

    Here's just one recent lovely example: [...]

  • Nick Heer ☛ ‘CEO Said a Thing’ Journalism Props Up the Myth of Elon Musk

    All these articles and videos bring in the views despite lacking the substance implied by either their publisher or, in the case of these video interviews, their length and serious tone. These CEOs know they can just say stuff. There is no reason to take them at their word, nor to publish a raft of articles based on whatever they say in some friendly and loose interview. Or a tweet, for that matter.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong journalists face 'precarious' future after Jimmy Lai jailed

    Journalists in the Chinese finance hub told AFP they were already operating within political “red lines” since the demise of outlets like Apple Daily.

    Just a day after Lai’s sentencing, China published a white paper that described safeguarding national security as a “long-term and enduring task” for Hong Kong — seen by some as a sign of Beijing doubling down.

• Civil Rights / Policing / Accessibility

  • France24 ☛ About 200,000 join Iran demonstration in Munich: police

    The pro-monarchist protesters rallied on the German city's Theresienwiese fairgrounds, denouncing the leadership of Iran's Islamic Republic following the deadly repression of nationwide protests in January.

    Human rights groups have reported that thousands of protesters were killed in Iran.

  • RFERL ☛ Iranian Opposition Holds Largest Ever Protest In Europe, With 250,000 People In Munich

    The Munich protest was part of a global day of action called by Reza Pahlavi, the last son of the shah of Iran who was deposed during the country’s 1979 Islamic revolution.

    One of numerous figures in Iran’s fractious exiled opposition, he was greeted by loud cheers as he arrived.

  • The Times Of Israel ☛ 250,000 rally in Munich against Iran’s regime as Pahlavi urges 'global day of action'

    Banging drums and chanting for regime change, the large and boisterous demonstration in Munich was part of what Pahlavi described as a “global day of action” to support Iranians in the wake of deadly nationwide protests. Pahlavi also called for rallies in Los Angeles and Toronto. German police said in a post on X that the number of protesters in Munich reached some 250,000, more than the organizers had expected.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ The Class War on White-Collar Workers Is Just More Capitalism

    Thanks to AI [sic], white-collar workers are discovering what blue-collar workers learned a half-century ago: they’re disposable.

  • Human rights Activists News Agency ☛ Day 49 of the Protests: “Unidentified Bodies” and the Continued Judicial Case-Building

    During the same period, the number of injured civilians has been recorded at 25,845; total arrests at 53,845 cases; student arrests at 141 cases; forced confessions at 355 cases; and summonses at 11,052 cases. A total of 676 protest-related incidents have been documented across 210 cities in 31 provinces.

    Today’s key developments include the following: the continuation of scattered arrests in various cities, with a noticeable focus on teenagers and school students; the ongoing process of judicial case-building and legal proceedings against detainees; the echo of anti-government nighttime slogans in several cities; and, at the same time, the intensification of political and diplomatic pressure by Canada in the form of sanctions related to repression and human rights violations.

  • Hindustan Times ☛ Perjury probe into ICE testimonies marks latest shooting where evidence contradicts Trump officials

    Federal authorities announced an investigation Friday into two immigration officers who appeared to have made untruthful statements under oath about a shooting in Minneapolis last month.

  • Tennessee Lookout ☛ ICE to open second Tennessee immigrant detention center in Lebanon

    ICE plans to spend $38.3 billion to acquire warehouses across the country and turn them into large-scale immigrant detention centers holding tens of thousands of people awaiting deportation or immigration hearings, the Washington Post reported Friday.

  • North Dakota Monitor ☛ North Dakota has an anti-mask law. Could it apply to ICE agents?

    Steven Morrison, who teaches criminal law, said they could be charged with the crime “if it were to be found that ICE agents are out there essentially intending to violate the law and wearing masks with the intent to conceal their identities.”

  • Nevada Current ☛ If you like chaos with your disenfranchisement, you'll love the US SAVE Act and NV voter ID combo

    Here’s the truth: As written, the SAVE Act would require documentary proof of citizenship — a passport, birth certificate, naturalization certificate, or an “enhanced driver’s license” that explicitly confirms citizenship. Nevada doesn’t have enhanced licenses. Only five states in the nation have “EDLs”– Washington, Michigan, New York, Vermont, and, oh the irony, Minnesota!

    If the SAVE Act becomes law, Nevadans showing up with a REAL ID or other government issued ID, even if it would comply with the new ballot measure, would only be able to vote on state and local state offices and issues. Voters could be stranded at polling places, and county clerks left to navigate conflicting state and federal mandates with no clear legal cover. Even that assumes the Nevada secretary of state and all registrars and county clerks are able to adapt their processes and materials to securely and transparently split state and federal ballots on electronic, paper and mail-in ballots before voting begins. Given the glitches that have plagued system updates, centralization attempts and rule changes in the Nevada voting system, and the myriad partisan vote challenges, lawsuits and conspiracy narratives floated before, during and after Nevada elections, it’s reasonable to expect intrigue and chaos in November, especially anywhere votes are remotely close.

  • Utah News Dispatch ☛ ICE making arrests in a Utah courthouse, with help from bailiffs, defense attorneys say

    “These people are showing up voluntarily, to do the responsible thing, to show up for their court hearing,” lawyer Lacey Singleton said. “And instead, they’re getting, like, kidnapped, out of nowhere.”

  • Politico LLC ☛ ICE says federal agents appear to have lied about confrontation that led to shooting

    “A joint review by ICE and the Department of Justice (DOJ) of video evidence has revealed that sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements,” Lyons said in a statement. “Both officers have been immediately placed on administrative leave pending the completion of a thorough internal investigation….The U.S. Attorney’s Office is actively investigating these false statements.”

  • The Nation ☛ How 2 University Freshman Are Tracking ICE Enforcement Actions Across the Country

    JV: It’s a news aggregating platform. We pull thousands and thousands of articles from around the country and we throw them all into this big pipeline where we assess if they’re relevant to ICE activity. Like, does this really talk about our intended purpose, and then, does it have any location information that would allow us to map it? Based on the outcome of our pipeline, we’re able to insert it so people can look around, they can look at their area, they can look at Minneapolis, Houston, Los Angeles, and see relevant news to ICE activity.

  • Human rights Activists News Agency ☛ Day 48 of the Protests: Ongoing Arrests, UN Warning, and Rising Number of Forced Confessions

    A total of 53,344 arrests have been recorded, of which 139 involve students. The number of published forced confessions has risen to 351 cases, and the number of summonses has reached 11,051. Furthermore, a total of 676 protest incidents have been recorded across 210 cities in 31 provinces throughout the country.

    On this day, four key incidents are noteworthy: the continuation of scattered arrests in various cities, growing legal concerns over violations of fair trial standards, reactions by domestic legal bodies to the situation of detainees, and the continued broadcast of forced confessions in state media.

  • [Repeat] New York Times ☛ Iran Turns to Digital Surveillance Tools to Track Down Protesters

    Iran’s government most likely tracked the protesters through location data emitting from their phones, researchers later concluded. The move was part of a new phase by the authorities to combat opposition by tapping a vast digital surveillance infrastructure to track down dissenters who participated in the recent antigovernment demonstrations, according to human rights groups, researchers and documents.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Is Netflix making us stupid?

    Much of "Stranger Things'" early appeal was visual: the clothes, the sets, the cheesy-but-cool special effects, the epic fight sequences. By its final season, much of that had given way to characters sitting around explaining what they're about to do, while rehashing plot points the audience has already seen. The world is supposedly coming to an end, yet Mike, Will, Nancy and Eleven always seem to have time for one more round of exposition.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Digital Camera World ☛ Nikon patent raises my hopes that my favorite DSLR lens will come to Z mount cameras at last

    It’s important to note that camera manufacturers patent designs all the time, and that it's never a guarantee something will come into fruition. It’s also possible that the design will change somewhat, were Nikon to announce the finished article. That said, I really think a Z 300mm f/2.8 VR would be a hugely popular optic and I for one would be very tempted to scrabble the funds together to pick one up right away.

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ South Korea Seeks Multilingual Talent to Hunt Down K-Content Piracy

    South Korea's copyright agency is recruiting 25 people to monitor foreign-language piracy sites for illegal copies of Korean movies, dramas, webtoons, and music. The work-from-home positions pay minimum wage, are open to applicants of any nationality, and list the ability to handle malware risks as a job requirement.

  • Techdirt ☛ Copyright Kills Competition

    Copyright owners increasingly claim more draconian copyright law and policy will fight back against big tech companies. In reality, copyright gives the most powerful companies even more control over creators and competitors. Today’s copyright policy concentrates power among a handful of corporate gatekeepers—at everyone else’s expense. We need a system that supports grassroots innovation and emerging creators by lowering barriers to entry—ultimately offering all of us a wider variety of choices.

    Pro-monopoly regulation through copyright won’t provide any meaningful economic support for vulnerable artists and creators. Because of the imbalance in bargaining power between creators and publishing gatekeepers, trying to help creators by giving them new rights under copyright law is like trying to help a bullied kid by giving them more lunch money for the bully to take.