Leftovers

• Science

  • Steinar H Gunderson ☛ Steinar H. Gunderson: A286874(14) = 28

    There's a logic puzzle that goes like this: A king has a thousand bottles of wine, where he knows that one is poisoned. He also has ten disposable servants that could taste the wine, but for whatever reason (the usual explanation is that the poison is slow-working and the feast is nearing), they can only take one sip each, possibly mixed from multiple bottles. How can he identify the bad bottle?

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Scientists attempt to link 3D printed ghost guns to specific filament brands with chemical fingerprinting — major filament makers often white-label products, complicating efforts

    A new study investigates whether science can trace 3D printed “ghost guns” through chemical analysis of the filament used for printing.

  • France24 ☛ NASA successfully kicks asteroid off course in Earth defence test

    NASA knocked an asteroid off course in 2022 in a pioneering test of humanity's ability to defend Earth. Its spacecraft's impact pushed the space rock into a slightly different orbit around the Sun, according to new research published Friday.

  • Science Alert ☛ This Week in Science: A Bonus Benefit of Ozempic, Secrets of 'Superagers', And More!

    Our weekly science news roundup.

  • Science Alert ☛ The Number of Kids You Have May Affect Your Lifespan, Study Finds

    Life choices.

  • Science Alert ☛ Aspergillus: What We Know About The Fungus Behind Hospital Deaths

    About 250,000 people worldwide could be infected.

  • Science Alert ☛ This 'Hyperarid' Desert Is Transforming Into a Carbon Sink. Here's Why.

    This really works.

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Reveal The Oldest Map of The Night Sky Ever Made

    We thought it was lost forever.

  • Science Alert ☛ Think Your Metabolism Runs Fast? The Science May Surprise You

    There are a number of factors to consider.

• Hardware

  • Futurism ☛ Amazon Staffers Learning Hard Lesson as Company Cuts Robotics Jobs

    Who's automating the automators?

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Hackaday ☛ How The Chornobyl NPP Got Modernized In The 1990s

      This SKALA industrial control system was previously detailed in a video, covering this 24-bit mainframe computer and its many limitations. It wasn’t quite a real-time control system, but it basically did what it was designed to do. Since at the time it was not clear for how long these three RBMKs would be kept running, they didn’t want to go overboard with investments either.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • New York Times ☛ Epstein Doctor Steps Away From Elite Health Clinics

    Dr. Bernard Kruger once gave a private E.R. membership to Jeffrey Epstein and unnamed “girls.”

  • JURIST ☛ New UN report examines human rights impact of air pollution

    A United Nations special rapporteur warned Friday that air pollution is contributing to widespread human rights violations worldwide, calling on governments to take urgent action to reduce pollution and protect the right to a healthy environment.

  • Futurism ☛ Atmospheric CO2 Getting So High That It’s Weakening Human Skeletons

    "Human physiology has progressively and consistently altered over the last ~25 years."

• Proprietary

  • Futurism ☛ Drama Erupts Over Claims That Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Will Embrace Hey Hi (AI) Even More Drastically in backdoored Vista 12

    "There is zero demand for this."

  • Xbox’s Cancelled Project Blackbird MMO May Have Cost Up to $400 Million

    Just last year, Microsoft was severely impacted by a major round of layoffs that also resulted in a few casualties at its gaming division. One of the biggest surprises was the gaming giant’s cancellation of Zenimax’s ambitious upcoming MMORPG, which was 7 years deep into development.

    Project Blackbird may have been a costly endeavour for Team Green, as it had a budget of $400 million, as per the LinkedIn profile of its game director.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Stanford University ☛ A New Wave of Education: From undergraduates to Ph.D.s, how is Hey Hi (AI) shifting classroom policies?

      Due to rapidly evolving artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, professors now face the challenge of creating classroom policies and curricula that teach students how to walk the line between beneficial and unethical uses of Hey Hi (AI) to give students the tools to learn, but also prepare them for a world that Hey Hi (AI) is incorporated into.

    • Futurism ☛ AI Can Mass-Unmask Pseudonymous Accounts, Research Paper Finds

      Goodbye, anonymity.

    • Futurism ☛ Philosopher Studying Hey Hi (AI) Consciousness Startled When Hey Hi (AI) Agent Emails Him About Its Own “Experience”

      "I'm writing because your work addresses questions I actually face, not just as an academic matter."

    • Futurism ☛ Entirely Vibe-Coded Operating System Is a Bug-Filled Disaster

      "You found an early build of backdoored Windows 12."

    • Futurism ☛ Manager at Associated Press Tells Journalists That Resistance to Hey Hi (AI) Is Futile

      "Resistance is futile" — famously a phrase said by the good guys.

    • New York Times ☛ When DOGE Unleashed Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot on the Humanities

      Documents show how Hey Hi (AI) was used to cancel most previously approved grants by the National Endowment for the Humanities as the agency embraced Hell Toupée’s agenda.

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ AMD VP uses Hey Hi (AI) to create Radeon GNU/Linux userland driver in Python — senior Hey Hi (AI) engineer says he "didn't open the editor once" [Ed: Letting quality degrade, then boasting about it]

      AMD's VP of Hey Hi (AI) software vibe coded the driver entirely using Claude Code, but it's meant for testing, not for deployment to users.

• Security

  • SANS ☛ YARA-X 1.14.0 Release, (Sat, Mar 7th)

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • The Register UK ☛ Spyware disguised as emergency-alert app sent to Israelis

      The malware's developers used spoofed certificates and the app also spoofed the installer source, making the software appear to have been installed from Google Play. This allowed it to bypass Android security checks and appear to have been legitimately signed.

• Defence/Aggression

  • JURIST ☛ Rights group calls for investigation into alleged sexual violence by Ethiopia OLA fighters

    Amnesty International on Thursday called on Ethiopian authorities to investigate allegations of sexual violence and torture committed by fighters of the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) in the country’s Oromia region.

  • France24 ☛ OpenAI robotics chief quits over AI’s potential use for war and surveillance

    A top robotics executive at Proprietary Chaffbot Company said Saturday she had resigned over the company’s deal with the US Department of Defense to allow its artificial intelligence to be used for war and potential domestic surveillance.

  • BBC ☛ Explosion at US embassy in Oslo may have been terrorism, Norway police say - BBC News

    An overnight explosion at the US embassy in Oslo may have been an act of terrorism, Norway's police have said.

    The embassy in the Norwegian capital sustained minor damage after the blast in the early hours of Sunday - but no-one was injured.

    "One of the hypotheses is that it is an act of terrorism, but we are not completely locked into it," Frode Larsen, the head of police joint investigation and intelligence unit, told Norway's public broadcaster NRK.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China’s Pooh-tin says the military must be politically loyal, root out corruption

    Mr Xi's remarks come amid the annual meetings of the nation’s top political bodies.

  • New York Times ☛ Two Toronto-Area Synagogues Are Struck by Gunfire

    The episodes, which happened late Friday and early Saturday, came after a third synagogue was damaged by gunfire on Monday, officials said.

  • Security Week ☛ US Cyber Strategy Targets Adversaries, Critical Infrastructure, and Emerging Technologies

    Dihydroxyacetone Man’s Cyber Strategy calls for stronger deterrence against cyber adversaries, modernization of federal networks, protection of critical infrastructure, and investment in technologies such as Hey Hi (AI) and post-quantum cryptography.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • New York Times ☛ In Russia’s Former Capital, Restoring the Past to Survive the Present

      With political activism off-limits, residents of St. Petersburg are finding purpose and community in the “politics of small deeds,” repairing and cleaning architectural treasures.

    • RFERL ☛ US Officials Confirm Russia Providing Targeting Intelligence To Iran

      US officials on March 6 told RFE/RL that Russia is providing Iran with targeting information to attack US troops and military assets in the Middle East, confirming a Washington Post report that suggested Moscow is playing a substantial if indirect part in the widening regional conflict.

    • France24 ☛ Reports suggest Moscow shares intelligence with Tehran

      Russia has shared intelligence with Iran that could help Tehran strike US warships, aircraft and other American assets in the region, according to two officials familiar with US intelligence – the first indication Moscow may be stepping into the war launched last week by the United States and Israel. France24 journalist Shirli Sitbon shares further details.

    • France24 ☛ Russia wins first Winter Paralympics medals since Sochi Games

      The Russian flag made its first appearance at a Paralympics medal ceremony in 12 years on Saturday as Varvara Voronchikhina and Aleksei Bugaev took bronze in the women's and men's downhill standing events, earning a polite smattering of applause from the crowd in Cortina.

    • New York Times ☛ Russia Attacks Kharkiv and Kyiv in Ukraine

      At least 10 people were killed when a Russian missile hit a five-story apartment building in the city of Kharkiv, and Kyiv and several other regions also came under attack.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Strike On Kharkiv Residential Building Kills At Least 10, Ukraine Says

      At lease 10 people were killed early on March 8 after Russia struck the northeast Ukrainian city of Kharkiv with missiles and drones, local officials said, prompting an angry call by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for action by Western partners.

    • New York Times ☛ Russia Revels in a Sudden Reversal in Fortunes as Oil and Gas Prices Soar

      President Vladimir V. Putin threatened to cut off remaining gas supplies to Europe as the Iran war drives a surge in energy costs.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Futurism ☛ Cops Accidentally Publicize Password to $4.4 Million in Crypto, Allowing Thieves to Easily Steal the Money and Run

      "There is no excuse for this incident."

    • The Straits Times ☛ 12 years after MH370 disappearance, families urge Malaysia to extend search

      Multiple searches in the southern Indian Ocean have all proved fruitless.

  • Overpopulation

    • The Straits Times ☛ From lowering marriage age to 16, to more subsidies, China weighs fixes for falling births

      Delegates at the ongoing Chinese parliamentary meetings have offered suggestions to help raise the fertility rate.

• Finance

  • JURIST ☛ Coalition of 24 states sue over Convicted Felon’s Section 122 tariffs

    A coalition of 24 US states on Thursday filed a lawsuit challenging The Insurrectionist’s implementation of new global tariffs following the Supreme Court’s February decision striking down his earlier tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • JURIST ☛ Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai will not appeal national security conviction

    Hong Kong media tycoon and Fashion Company Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai will not appeal his national security conviction or the accompanying 20-year prison sentence, according to one of his lawyers and a Friday Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) report.

• Civil Rights / Policing / Accessibility

  • Futurism ☛ Lawmakers Consider Ban on Implanting Microchips Into Workers

    "An employer may not request, require, or coerce any employee to have a microchip implanted in the employee for any reason."

  • Daniel Pocock ☛ Urgent: welfare check, call now Iran women's football team

    As publicised all around the world, the women's football team from Iran is currently touring Australia.

    Their final match takes place today, International Women's Day and then they will be placed on a plane back to Iran.

    At their first match, they refused to sing the national anthem.

    At their second match, they saluted and sung the national anthem.

    Experts have widely observed this change in behaviour was due to coercive control.

    The state of Queensland was the first state in Australia to introduce laws on coercive control. The police have an obligation to uphold the law. The women's final match is in Queensland.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Kev Quirk ☛ Sunsetting The 512kb Club

    All good things must come to an end, and today is that day for one of my projects, the 512kb Club.

    I started the 512kb Club back in November 2020, so it's been around 5.5 years. It's become a drain and I'm ready to move on. As of today I won't be accepting any new submissions to the project. At the time of writing this, there are 25 PRs open for new submissions, I'll work through them, then will disable the ability to submit pull requests.

    Over the years there have been nearly 2,000 pull requests, and there are currently around 950 sites listed on the 512kb Club. Pretty cool, but it's a lot of work to manage - there's reviewing new submissions (which is a steady stream of pull requests), cleaning up old sites, updating sites, etc. It's more than I have time to do.

    I'm also trying to focus my time on other projects, like Pure Commons.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Twenty and Done: The Fee-Driven Collapse of Claim Count Diversity

    New data shows 28% of U.S. utility patents now issue with exactly 20 claims, up from 6% in 2005, revealing how USPTO excess claim fees reshape patent monopoly scope.

• Copyrights

  • Futurism ☛ Evidence Grows That Google’s Hey Hi (AI) Overviews Have Eviscerated the Media Industry

    It's hard times for the digital media-sphere.

• Gemini* and Gopher

  • Personal/Opinions

    • Opportunity Costs

      I am mired in the unenviable feeling of the nagging optimizer-- I could be using my time so much more efficiently. Even as I write this I am yearning to read -- but inevitably as soon as I pick up the book my mind will complain that it must unload the dishwasher. And, as soon as the dishwasher is open, I will fancy doing some sketching. Indubitably this attitude leads me to disenjoyment of whatever activity I do. My perception of the opportunity costs leads me to dissatisfaction.

  • Technology and Free Software

    • Mortal Kombat 2 ASCII living forest

      I updated my 404 page, I wanted to make an animation, the trees didn't turn out scary, but... strange ))