Leftovers

• Science

  • Futurism ☛ Scientists Experimenting With Quantum Effect That Some Fear Could Cause Chain Reaction That Ends Entire Universe

    What could possibly go wrong?

  • New York Times ☛ The E.P.A.’s Lost Science

    The agency’s prestigious research office is being dismantled by the Convicted Felon administration, a plan to dam the Bering Strait and more climate news.

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Discover a Key Difference in Brains That Resist Alzheimer's

    One molecular switch could be crucial.

  • Science Alert ☛ Does Beer Have a 'Surprising Health Benefit'? Here's What The Science Says

    Those 'healthy beer' claims aren't quite what they seem.

  • Science Alert ☛ Hidden Phenomenon Could Explain Why Old Buildings Feel Haunted, Study Finds

    There could be a sub-sonic reason for that chill down your spine.

  • Science Alert ☛ Evolution Keeps Making Crabs – But a Key Feature Has Only Evolved Once

    Walk this way.

  • Science Alert ☛ Evolution Favored Genes Linked to Red Hair – And Vitamin D May Be Why

    "We can now watch how selection shaped biology in real time."

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Discover a Surprising Link Between Voting And Longevity

    A hidden health boost?

  • Science Alert ☛ Ultra-Processed Foods May Be Quietly Affecting Your Brain's Ability to Focus

    Even if your diet is 'healthy'.

• Career/Education

  • Chronicle Of Higher Education ☛ Grad-Student Unions Are Demanding Colleges Help Protect Students From Deportation

    As a strike enters its second week at Harvard, a key sticking point is support for the foreign scholars who make up a large share of its doctoral programs.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • CS Monitor ☛ Iran war reaches into Asia’s farmlands – and everyone’s grocery bills

    It’s planting season for farmers in Southeast Asia. The global fertilizer shortage could not have come at a worse time. Later, U.S. consumers will feel the impact, too.

  • New York Times ☛ Could At-Home Brain Stimulation Reduce Psychiatry’s Reliance on S.S.R.I.s?

    A headset recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration uses a weak electric current to shock the brain. Some researchers hope it could challenge the current pill-centric paradigm.

  • New Yorker ☛ Conversation with a Health-Care-Provider Support Bot

    Here are a few things I’d rather do than log in to a portal: Get three mosquito bites. Drive all the way to Encino to have something notarized.

  • Science Alert ☛ Common Gout Medications Linked to Lower Risk of Heart Attack And Stroke

    A significant connection.

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ Bridge Listens: How Michigan’s next governor would fix health care

    From rising costs to vaccines and nursing homes: Michigan gubernatorial candidates tell Bridge how they would tackle health care.

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ Bridge Listens: Health care costs climbing, challenges loom. What to know

    Bridge readers say health care is a big concern, with rising costs, limited access and federal policy changes straining the state's system. We break down the facts, trends and possible solutions.

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ In their words: How Michigan governor candidates would fix health care

    Eight candidates vying for Michigan governor explains their health care plans to Bridge.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Four firms under probe over syringe hoarding in S. Korea amid naphtha supply disruption

    Naphtha is a liquid essential for making a key ingredient in many medical supplies.

• Proprietary

  • So-Called 'Artificial Intelligence' ('AI') / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Futurism ☛ Scam Altman Caught in What May Be His Most Spectacular Lie Yet

      Two-faced Sam strikes again.

    • New York Times ☛ Here Are the Key Players in the Proprietary Chaffbot Company Trial

      MElon, Scam Altman and several other key artificial intelligence industry figures are slated to testify in the trial, which is expected to last several weeks.

    • New York Times ☛ Who are the lawyers representing MElon, Proprietary Chaffbot Company and Microsoft?

    • Silicon Angle ☛ MElon accuses Proprietary Chaffbot Company CEO Scam Altman of trying to ‘steal’ a charity

      Billionaire technology entrepreneur MElon took the stand today in a landmark trial that pits him against Proprietary Chaffbot Company Group PBC Chief Executive Scam Altman, with the outcome set to have a major impact on the future of artificial intelligence.

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ Market slumps as Proprietary Chaffbot Company reportedly misses internal targets for active users and revenue — Nvidia, Oracle, AMD, and CoreWeave shares all tremble on the news

      Nvidia, Oracle, SoftBank, and CoreWeave saw their stock prices go down because of news that Proprietary Chaffbot Company has been missing its internal targets. SoftBank stock lost 9.9% of its value on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Nvidia, AMD, Oracle, and CoreWeave also dropped during pre-market trading and remain down after the market opened.

    • Silicon Angle ☛ Chip stocks drop on report Proprietary Chaffbot Company missed Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot growth targets

      Shares of Nvidia Corp. and other tech firms dropped today following a report that Proprietary Chaffbot Company Group PBC had missed its growth targets last year. The Wall Street Journal late Monday cited sources as saying that the company’s 2025 user base gains and revenue fell short of expectations.

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ News site linked to Proprietary Chaffbot Company super PAC sent bots posing as journalists to interview real people — site has published nearly 100 articles with real quotes gathered by fake writers

      The site has published 94 articles since late December using a fully automated pipeline that drafts stories, reviews them, and deploys bots to solicit quotes from real people under fake bylines.

    • Scoop News Group ☛ Spy agency officials say job loss anxiety, moving fast ‘safely’ among top challenges in Hey Hi (AI) workforce overhaul

      While tech leaders think about how to strategically deploy Hey Hi (AI) tools to support human intelligence needs, rank and filers express concerns about their livelihoods.

    • GamingOnLinux ☛ Anthropic begin funding Blender as a Corporate Patron | GamingOnLinux

      The Blender Foundation announced today that Anthropic (the AI [sic] company) have begun funding them, joining up as a Corporate Patron.

    • Futurism ☛ OpenAI in Shambles as IPO Looms

      It's not looking good.

    • New York Times ☛ What MElon’s Clash With Scam Altman of Proprietary Chaffbot Company Is Really About

      Mr. MElon’s lawsuit against Mr. Altman and Proprietary Chaffbot Company makes the case that all-encompassing greed is Silicon Valley’s defining feature.

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ OpenAI and Microsoft's alliance fractures as cloud exclusivity deal ends — Azure's single-provider monopoly for Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot is officially over [Ed: Circular financing accounting fraud. Microsoft paid a company to pretend to be a customer and fake "growth" in Azure.]

      Microsoft and Proprietary Chaffbot Company have announced a restructuring of their relationship. No longer will Abusive Monopolist Microsoft pay Proprietary Chaffbot Company a revenue share, but it will continue to flow the other way. Abusive Monopolist Microsoft will also retain model access and a first-refusal for its Microsoft trap Azure server services, but Proprietary Chaffbot Company will be able to work with other CSPs.

    • Silicon Angle ☛ AI writes enterprise code fast. Cleaning it up is another story entirely

      AI-generated code is accelerating how quickly applications can be built, but creating reliable, enterprise-grade systems remains far more challenging. As organizations embrace rapid prototyping, many are finding that speed without governance can quickly lead to technical debt and maintenance challenges.

    • Silicon Angle ☛ ‘Code is cheap. Mistakes are expensive’: Appian gives vibe coding an enterprise reality check

      The rise of vibe coding is pushing software teams to build faster than ever before, but enterprise buyers demand systems that can survive audits and operational risk. The result is a new kind of software race, one where the finish line is no longer a working demo but a defensible system of record.

  • Social Control Media

    • Press Gazette ☛ News booms on Youtube: BillBC goes top as leading publishers grow 16%

      Ranking of all English-language publishers on Youtube with more than one million subscribers.

• Pseudo-Open Source

  • Openwashing

    • Open Source Initiative ☛ The 2026 State of Open Source Report [Ed: Microsoft-sponsored OSI 'study' from Microsoft-connected 'Open'Logic]

      The 2026 State of Open Source Report points to open source as a strategic concern for IT leadership, shaped by geopolitical pressure, security risk, compliance complexity, and the growing operational burden of maintaining open source software at scale. 

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Chinese protesters demand Cambodia unfreeze accounts with scam-linked firm

      Waving their national flags, dozens of Chinese nationals protested outside Cambodia’s central bank on Monday, demanding the unfreezing of accounts they opened with a financial services firm linked to cyberscamming. Some demonstrators wielded umbrellas and clashed with scores of local security personnel armed with batons, leaving at least two protesters bloodied.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Scoop News Group ☛ U.S. companies hit with record fines for privacy in 2025

      The increase is being driven by powerful privacy laws in states like California, new interstate partnerships and a renewed focus on the privacy impacts of Hey Hi (AI) and automation.

    • Futurism ☛ Police Are Using Hey Hi (AI) Camera Networks to Stalk Women

      "The fundamental problem with these systems is that they place private information about people's movements over time in the hands of every officer."

    • New York Times ☛ Google Signs Hey Hi (AI) Deal With the Pentagon

      The Pentagon has also signed deals for using Hey Hi (AI) on classified networks with Proprietary Chaffbot Company and MElon’s xAI, amid a dispute with Anthropic.

• Defence/Aggression

  • New York Times ☛ Afghanistan Accuses Pakistan of Artillery Strike on a University

    Pakistan, which has been waging an “open war” on its neighbor, did not acknowledge strikes on civilian areas Monday that officials said killed at least four people and wounded about 70 others.

  • France24 ☛ Insurgents reshaping Mali: Tuaregs seek autonomy, jihadists pursue caliphate across Sahel

    Annette Young is pleased to welcome Nina Wilen, Director of the Africa Programme at the Egmont Institute. According to Ms. Wilen, the insurgency in Mali reflects shifting power balances across the Sahel. What we are witnessing is not simply a surge in violence, but a reconfiguration of authority, where Tuareg rebels and jihadist groups, particularly the JNIM, have steadily expanded their operational capacity while state and international actors have lost ground. The recent coordinated attacks signal that they can strike at the heart of the state, yet they may not seek to govern it directly.

  • Site36 ☛ Hundreds of Greeks and Romanians want to join Frontex’ armed unit – but only four Germans

    The EU border agency’s “Standing Corps” Category 1 has reached only 75 per cent of its planned strength due to meagre pay – it mainly attracts police officers from member states with lower wages.

  • Site36 ☛ Frontex announces apps and chatbot for migrant “returns”: Fears of profiling and “self-deportations” following US model

    Frontex is developing two apps — “RRApp” and “Recapp” — to manage migrant “returns”. Critics warn the tools could enable mass deportations and covert movement tracking, mirroring controversial US immigration enforcement technology.

  • JURIST ☛ South Korea prosecutors seek 30-year sentence for ex-president for attempting to provoke North Korea attack

    A special counsel team in South Korea is seeking a 30-year prison sentence for former president Yoon Suk Yeol on charges of “benefiting the enemy” after allegedly ordering the dispatch of military drones over the North Korean capital city, Pyongyang, in 2024.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea appeals court sentences ex-first lady Kim Keon Hee to 4 years in jail

    The former first lady has been detained in jail since August.

  • The Straits Times ☛ North Korean executions rose dramatically during Covid: Report

    An NGO said the number of executions and death sentences more than doubled in five years since 2020.

  • The Straits Times ☛ N. Korea’s Kim praises soldiers who died by suicide to evade capture in Ukraine

    North Korea sent an estimated 14,000 troops to fight with Russian forces in the Kursk region.

  • The Strategist ☛ ASPI’s China Defence Universities Tracker: China–Iran research ties

    China and Iran have gradually deepened research ties in dual-use and emerging technologies over the past 15 years, the latest update to ASPI’s China Defence Universities Tracker (CDUT) shows.

  • RFERL ☛ Beijing Pushes Back As US Sanctions Chinese Oil Refinery Over Iran Links

    Beijing has pushed back on a US decision to sanction the Hengli oil refinery, rejecting Washington's accusations that the company "plays an outsized role" in buying Iranian oil.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Philippines not concerned Iran war will distract US from region, top defence official says

    Manila and Beijing have been locked in a series of maritime confrontations in the South China Sea.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Taiwan minister says she visited second islet in disputed South China Sea

    The minister said complaints by Vietnam about her trip would not cause any regional tensions.

  • Defence Web ☛ Mali receives major new weapons shipment from China

    Mali’s armed forces have taken delivery of another large shipment of military equipment from China, including Yitian-L short-range air defence [...]

  • ACLU ☛ Deaths in Detention: ICE Is Rapidly Expanding Detention Camps into Warehouses Despite Record Deaths

    Despite abhorrent conditions and increasing deaths in ICE detention, the Convicted Felon administration’s new warehouse detention system would increase capacity to 96,000 people and undoubtedly lead to continued abuse.

  • The Strategist ☛ Expanding frontiers: China’s military push beyond the first island chain

    China’s defence and security presence beyond the Western Pacific is set to intensify over the next decade, expanding its access, influence and operational reach across the Indo-Pacific.

  • The Strategist ☛ Creating a northern hybrid zone to turn ambition into action

    Washington and Manila have moved from intent to design, announcing plans for a 4,000-acre (16 square km) economic security zone to anchor allied supply chains in the Philippines.

  • New York Times ☛ White House Urges House to Quickly Fund D.H.S.

    The call amounted to a rebuke of Speaker Mike Johnson, who has delayed action on a homeland security spending bill and suggested this week that it needed changes.

  • Satellite imagery reveals increased activity at North Korean nuclear complex

    Steam plumes and construction at Yongbyon suggest Kim Jong Un is making good on his five-year nuclear buildup plan.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • New York Times ☛ Prisoner Swap Between Belarus, Poland and Other Nations Frees 10

      Multiple countries took part in the exchange of prisoners, including a well-known journalist released to Poland, as the Convicted Felon administration’s outreach to Belarus continued to pay dividends.

    • New York Times ☛ Luxury Yacht Linked to Russian Oligarch Passes Through Strait of Hormuz

      The Nord, a 464-foot vessel, appears to be tied to Aleksei A. Mordashov, a Russian steel mogul who is under American and European sanctions.

    • The Straits Times ☛ EU’s top diplomat calls on South-east Asian countries to seek alternatives to Russian oil

      The EU approved a fresh round of sanctions on Russia in April, tightening restrictions on oil trade.

    • LRT ☛ China lifts sanctions on two Lithuanian banks after EU move

      China has lifted sanctions on two Lithuanian banks, Urbo Bankas and Mano Bankas, in a reciprocal step following a European Union decision to remove restrictions on Chinese financial institutions.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Black Sea Oil Facility On Fire Again After Ukrainian Strike

      Ukrainian drones hit the large Russian Black Sea oil facility terminals at Tuapse for the third time in 12 days, sparking another billowing fire and prompting evacuations.

    • New York Times ☛ Internet Restrictions Spur Russians to Openly Question Putin’s Moves

      From beauty influencers to the token political opposition, Russians are openly questioning President Vladimir V. Putin’s moves to hamstring access.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian state firm breaks pledge to take care of Ukrainian refugees

      Lithuania’s electricity network operator, Litgrid, had promised to house dozens of families of its Ukrainian counterpart, Ukrenergo, until the war is over. Four years later, the state-owned company is going back on its promise.

    • France24 ☛ Hungary's Magyar seeks reset with Kyiv, proposes June summit with Zelensky

      Hungary’s incoming prime minister, Peter Magyar, has extended an olive branch to Ukraine, proposing a June meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky aimed at mending strained ties between the neighbouring countries and addressing longstanding disputes over the rights of Ukraine's ethnic Hungarians.

    • New Yorker ☛ How Putin and Zelensky View the War in Iran

      The war’s ripple effects have exacerbated conflicts, economic insecurity, and regional tensions around the world, including in Ukraine.

    • RFERL ☛ Russia, Iran Tout 'Strategic' Ties Amid Conflict With United States

      Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced strong support for Iran in its conflict with the United States as he greeted Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi for talks in St Petersburg on April 27.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Straits Times ☛ Cheaper, cleaner electric trucks overhaul China’s logistics

      Manufacturers expect the vehicles to make up the majority of domestic truck sales in a few years.

    • The Straits Times ☛ China suspends new autonomous driving permits after Baidu outage

      The suspension prevents self-driving companies from adding new robotaxis to their fleets.

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ Six Hey Hi (AI) data centers proposed for a small town of 7,000, equal to 51 Walmart Supercenters in 17 square mile area — four out of the seven town council members have resigned from their positions as town fights back

      The residents of Archbald, Pennsylvania have started pushing back against the six planned data centers in the town, which will take up about 14% of its land area.

    • Futurism ☛ A Tiny Town Is Building So Many Data Centers That There’ll Be Almost Nothing Else Left

      “THE PUBLIC TRUST HAS BEEN VIOLATED."

    • New York Times ☛ Treasury Issues More Sanctions on Iranian Oil Exports

      The measures aim to crack down on Iran’s shadow banking system and Chinese purchases of Iranian oil.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Futurism ☛ Woman Convicted for Attacking Police With Swarm of Furious Bees

      "Hey, hey, hey, she has a truck full of bees."

• Finance

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong housing estate Richland Gardens draws controversy over hiring of non-local security guards

    Hong Kong residential estate Richland Gardens has sparked controversy after announcing the hiring of non-local workers as security guards.

  • RFERL ☛ US Hits Iran's 'Shadow Banking' Network With New Sanctions

    As the US-Israeli war with Iran continues to impact and shape the region, journalists from RFE/RL deliver ongoing updates and analysis.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • France24 ☛ Former FBI chief Comey indicted again, in probe over online post officials call a Convicted Felon threat

    Former FBI director James Comey has been indicted again, US media reported Tuesday, five months after a previous case was dismissed. Comey was indicted in an investigation over a social control media photo of seashells arranged on a beach that officials said constituted a threat against The Insurrectionist.

  • New York Times ☛ Former Fauci Adviser Indicted on Covid-Related Charges

    Prosecutors accused Dr. David Morens, a former adviser to Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, of hiding records related to the onset of the pandemic.

  • JURIST ☛ Rights organizations send letter to Japan Prime Minister on proposed national security legislation

    A group of 15 rights organizations sent a joint letter on Sunday to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi concerning her government’s proposed anti-espionage law and foreign agents registration act.

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ SPLC Wants Todd Blanche to Stop Lying

    Before being indicted, SPLC repeatedly raised a warning they gave to DOJ about a far right extremist who was trying to get security clearance to work in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, a tip that came from an informant. And then Todd Blanche went on TV and claimed SPLC had never passed on information from any informant.

  • The Straits Times ☛ New Zealand local council rejects installation of ‘comfort women’ statue

    The statue was planned to be installed in a Korean cultural garden on city-owned land.

  • Green Party UK ☛ 2026-04-20 [Older] Green Party responds to Reform UK’s ‘ill-thought-out and cruel’ plan to deport hundreds of thousands granted asylum

  • Green Party UK ☛ 2026-04-21 [Older] Greens to ‘hold government’s feet to the fire’ on ‘weakening’ link between gas and electricity prices

  • Green Party UK ☛ 2026-04-21 [Older] We deserve better: Green Party launches local election fundraiser with message for Starmer and Farage

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Political commentator to stand trial in Oct over disclosing nat. sec probe details

    A Hong Kong political commentator charged with disclosing details of a national security investigation will stand trial in October. Wong Kwok-ngon, known by his pen name Wong On-yin, appeared at the District Court on Tuesday.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Press Gazette ☛ Future of Media Awards 2026 open for entries with four new categories

    Publisher of the year, media innovator and best use of Hey Hi (AI) to be recognised.

• Civil Rights / Policing / Accessibility

  • New York Times ☛ Supreme Court Appears Skeptical of Falun Gong Lawsuit Against Cisco

    The court’s decision could have broader implications for lawsuits seeking to hold companies liable for international human rights abuses.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • AccessNow ☛ Tell governments: #NoExamShutdown

    Each year sees an increase in the number of governments imposing internet shutdowns during national school exams.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Denuvo has been cracked in all single-player games it previously protected — 2K Games and Denuvo reportedly retaliate with mandatory 14-day online checks

    Denuvo has been bypassed in all single-player, non-VR games it previously protected with the widely-publicized hypervisor bypass.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Sony rolls out 30-day online DRM check-in for PlayStation digital games — players could temporarily lose access if they don't keep their consoles online

    PS4 and PS5 consoles are now apparently subject to a new DRM policy requiring users to check-in online every 30 days to maintain access.

• Monopolies/Monopsonies

  • Patents

    • Heather J Meeker ☛ Patent Trolls in the Grocery Aisle: Aldi Takes on Intellectual Ventures[Ed: Microsoft proxy]

      In April 2026, Aldi Inc., the no-frills German discount grocer beloved by bargain hunters across America, filed a preemptive declaratory judgment lawsuit against Intellectual Ventures (IV). (That link may be paywalled, so here is the docket information: Case 1:26-cv-00461-UNA, filed 4/21/26 in the District Court for Delaware.)

    • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Range of Motion En Banc Petition: The Plainly Dissimilar Test and the Functionality Question

      Range of Motion en banc petition asks whether the Federal Circuit's 'plainly dissimilar' threshold inverts Gorham's substantial-sameness test for design patents.

    • Unified Patents ☛ Umbra Tech virtual network patent monopoly challenged

      On April 27, 2026, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination proceeding against U.S. Patent 12,452,192, owned and asserted by Umbra Technologies Ltd. The ’192 patent monopoly is generally directed to virtual network systems where a control server sends a ranked list of access point servers to an endpoint.

    • Unified Patents ☛ K.Mizra communication patents prior art found

      The team at Unified IP Services used Pearl to successfully identify and chart prior art against U.S. Patent 9,235,259 and U.S. Patent 9,602,649, owned by K.Mizra LLC, an NPE. The ‘259 patent monopoly relates detecting short “tick” sounds in noisy audio using a two-stage process.

    • JUVE ☛ Saint Gobain and Splanemann defend smart glass patent monopoly at EPO

      The market for innovations in speciality glass for the automotive industry is fiercely competitive. There have been several recent patent monopoly disputes in this industry, such as Fuyao Glass vs Saint Gobain and ACG concerning head-up displays and Sekisui Chemicals and Kuraray concerning special films for car windscreens.

    • Unified Patents ☛ $4,000 awarded for Key Patent Innovations entity, Malikie Innovations, cryptographic patents prior art

      Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winners below totaling $4,000 in cash prizes. The patents are owned by Malikie Innovations Limited, an NPE and entity of Key Patent Innovations. The patents generally relate to cryptographic systems. The ‘062 patent monopoly has been asserted against MARA Holdings, Core Scientific, and Foundry Digital LLC.

      We would also like to thank the dozens of other high-quality submissions that were made on these patents.

    • Kangaroo Courts

      • JUVE ☛ Local division The Hague refuses to grant PI to Stratasys [Ed: UPC is illegal and imposing embargoes based on dubious patents from a corrupted patent office with help from a court where judges work for corporations is an utter disgrace to Europe's status]

        The panel at the local division The Hague, consisting of Margot Kokke, Mojca Mlakar, Robert van Peursem, and Koen Callewaert, did not grant a PI (case ID: UPC-CFI-305/2026).