Leftovers

• IBM

  • Kyndryl plans job cuts, forecasts pretax profit below estimates

  • Wouter Groeneveld ☛ I'm Sorry Dear Journal 18; It's Not Me It's You

    I’m happy now. I can feel my thoughts flowing, I can catch the flowing thoughts, and I can let them compost and rework them. I am thinking about stickers. I pasted a few scribblings of the daughter in there. Number 19 is big enough to handle all this without having to resort to drastic measures involving a scissor. The ink doesn’t do unexpected things. I can rest my hands where they should rest instead of having to wrestle with you because you always had the knack to close while I was still writing.

  • Ruben Schade ☛ BSD, bottles of water, and positive habits

    I suppose hobbies get a free pass here. But I wouldn’t consider drinking water a “hobby”; though I’ve developed quite the addiction to the stuff over my lifetime. If I want to get more water into myself as a regular habit, I need to make it as simple as picking up a bottle on my desk. If I have to walk over to the fridge, extract a bottle, pour it into my glass, and walk back to my desk (I know, it’s a hard life), I’m less likely to do it. This is evidenced by the fact that apparently I’ve been dehydrated for the first few decades of my life, and have only just begun to correct it.

    It’s honestly a big reason why I run the fine BSD operating systems thesedays as well. Increasingly I’m seeing Linux people jump ship to BSD after the latest poorly-conceived, short-lived, over-engineered, extra-hyphenated stack has been thrust upon them by a corporation with motives that differ from theirs. You know what the overwhelming feedback is from those who’ve reached out having done that? “Huh, it’s… that easy?”

  • The New Leaf Journal ☛ Blogging and the Niche Question

    Speaking for myself, I appreciate most the articles and blog posts that make me stop, think, and approach an issue or question in a different way than I would have without the benefit of having read something insightful. There are many articles and blog posts that I find largely agreeable, but ultimately gloss over because they lack the originality that makes other articles and posts stand out to me.

  • Mat Duggan ☛ matduggan.com/the-intolerable-hypocrisy-of-cyberlibertarianism/

    One of the first and most classic examples of the ideology that powered and continues to power tech is the classic "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" by John Perry Barlow written in 1996. You can find the full text here. I remember thinking it was genius when I first read it. I was young enough that I also thought "Snow Crash" was a serious political document. Today the Declaration reads like one of those sovereign citizen TikToks where someone in traffic court is claiming diplomatic immunity under maritime law.

    It helps to know who Barlow was. Barlow was a Grateful Dead lyricist. He was also a Wyoming cattle rancher. He was also, briefly, the campaign manager for Dick Cheney's first run for Congress. (You did not misread that.) He spent his later years as a fixture at Davos, the World Economic Forum, where the very wealthy gather each January to remind each other that they are interesting. It was at Davos, in February 1996, fueled by champagne and grievance over the Telecommunications Act, that Barlow banged out the Declaration on a laptop and emailed it to a few hundred friends. From there it became, somehow, one of the founding documents of the modern [Internet].

  • Elliot C Smith ☛ Don't sell the build effort.

    Both of these approaches are common. Neither of them means you wont get any sales but they're both disconnected from the optimal price point, one set through value based pricing.

  • TMZ ☛ CNN Founder Ted Turner Dead at 87

    Turner Enterprises announced Ted died Wednesday morning. Back in 2018, he announced he'd been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia. That announcement came shortly after his 80th birthday.

  • Dark Reading ☛ From Stuxnet to ChatGPT: 20 News Events That Shaped Cyber

    As part of its 20th anniversary celebration, Dark Reading looks back on 20 of the biggest newsmaking events from the past two decades that influenced the risk landscape for today's cybersecurity teams.

  • 404 Media ☛ Man Finds $1 Million Worth of Yu-Gi-Oh Cards in a Dumpster

    At the end of March, a man began to sell massive amounts of rare Yu-Gi-Oh cards online. He claimed he’d found them in the trash, but people in the community worried he’d stolen them. His posts on Facebook, TikTok, and eBay became erratic. He fought with people in the comments and said he’d made tens of thousands of dollars selling cards. Then his mom showed up on Facebook to defend him.

• Science

  • Omicron Limited ☛ 4,000-year-old texts to reach new audiences in digital project

    The team, including researchers at the University of Al-Qadisiyah, Iraq, the University of York, UK, and Lund University, Sweden, have launched an Arabic version of the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI), a resource for the study of cuneiform inscriptions worldwide, developed over the course of the last quarter century through the combined efforts of an extensive global research community.

    While famous works such as the Epic of Gilgamesh—which tells the story of a legendary king's quest for immortality following the death of his friend—are widely known, cuneiform texts also include some of the earliest legal codes.

  • John D Cook ☛ Smoothed polygons

    The previous post constructed a triangular analog of the squircle, the unit circle in the p-norm where p is typically around 4. The case p = 2 is a Euclidean circle and the limit as p → ∞ is a Euclidean square.

    The previous post introduced three functions Li(x, y) such the level set of each function [...]

  • [Repeat] Daniel Lemire ☛ Checking multiplication overflow

    The easiest approach is to compare x with (2^L-1) // 6 where I use the symbol // to denote the integer division (as opposed to /).

    But can you do otherwise ?

• Career/Education

  • Jim Grey ☛ The roller coaster always ends

    I read once, maybe in that seminal job-hunting guide What Color Is Your Parachute, that the job search is NO NO NO NO NO NO NO … NO NO YES. The nos aren’t a sign something is wrong. They aren’t a verdict on your worth or your prospects. They’re just the ride. The yes is in there somewhere, but you can’t get to it except through the nos. Every interview that goes nowhere, every role that evaporates, every quarter where nobody is hiring — that’s not the roller coaster malfunctioning. That’s the roller coaster working exactly as designed.

  • Jessica Nickelsen ☛ Things are happening

    So I’m going to be doing lots of samples, shipped in glass and aluminium bottles because I can’t bear the thought of introducing more plastic into the world on my watch. But starting small. The first company I’m bringing over is Ink Institute, from Taiwan. Just a few different lines to begin with. But every few months I’ll do a new drop from someone else. And then gradually back-fill the inventory as we go. Also eventually I will stock some basic pens and paper but the focus will always be on the inks themselves.

  • Guy LeCharles Gonzalez ☛ Personal News: Open to Work!

    Earlier this year, LibraryPass (my full-time passion for nearly six years) was acquired, and I decided it was a good time to figure out my next adventure while helping the new owners through the initial transition. That transition is in its final phase now, so for the first time since 2015, I’m on the open market, looking for my next gig!

  • The Scotsman ☛ Young generation must not forget our WWII heroes and why they fought

    A new polls finds just a third of young people know what ‘VE Day’ means

  • North Dakota Monitor ☛ Western North Dakota readies for historic Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opening

    Robbie Lauf, executive director of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, said the Fourth of July will celebrate the American West along with the story of Theodore Roosevelt’s life and how it was changed in the Badlands of North Dakota following the death of his wife and his mother in 1884.

  • The Indiana Capital Chronicle ☛ Librarians want stable funding for Imagination Library

    Just shy of 1,000 children from birth to age five are now registered to receive free, age-appropriate books through the mail each month, Ehinger said.

    Another 200 have since graduated — surpassing the Dollywood Foundation’s expectations in a county where families do not live in a library district.

    “The goal is to get books into the home so children have that experience of holding a book, of learning that reading is from left to right, top to bottom, and develop those literacy skills before they reach school,” she said.

  • Omicron Limited ☛ A study on intergenerational coexistence at a university helps dismantle stereotypes associated with ageism

    The research highlights a range of challenges and opportunities linked to intergenerational coexistence within the classroom and shows how this practice fosters the exchange of experiences and enriches academic debate. It also proves that older students contribute knowledge, diverse life experiences and a high level of motivation for learning, factors which also benefit their younger peers and the broader university community. The findings are published in the journal Educational Gerontology.

  • American Library Association ☛ Laufey takes center stage as honorary chair of Library Card Sign-up Month 2026

    Icelandic-Chinese composer, singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Laufey has been named honorary chair of Library Card Sign-up Month. This September, Laufey will join the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries nationwide to give everyone a front row seat to the joy of getting a library card.

• Hardware

  • Chris Aldrich ☛ Acquired 1947 Underwood SS Rhythm Touch Standard Typewriter (Underwood Corporation)

    Acquired at Goodwill Southern California for $20.28 including tax on 2026-05-06. Needs a full clean, oil, and adjust, but not in generally bad shape. Two or three mechanical issues to sort out, but it’s got some new ink and a quick wipe down/dusting has helped immensely.

  • Digital Camera World ☛ Try not to wince at these poor cameras getting torture tested. NASA tests prove several off-the-shelf cameras can probably handle the extremes of space

    When selecting cameras for a mission, NASA doesn’t just take the manufacturer’s word on performance, instead putting any potential models through the most rigorous testing to ensure they don’t fail astronauts during a once-in-a-lifetime moment.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Independent UK ☛ California farmers to destroy 420,000 peach trees after Del Monte collapses

    Central California peach farmers are preparing to destroy around 420,000 clingstone peach trees afterDel Monte Foods shut down its canneries earlier this year.

    Del Monte, the 139-year-old canned fruit and vegetable company, permanently closed its canneries in Modesto and Hughson in April following a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last July.

  • Rodrigo Ghedin ☛ A screen addict on the couch

    A few months ago, during a therapy session, I mentioned the possibility that I might be addicted to screens. The psychologist asked what I do when I’m not looking at them. I could only come up with a few things — all simple, some pathetic, like “washing dishes.”

    She said it’s common for addicts, upon recognizing their addiction, to find themselves in an existential void. I think there’s no doubt that “washing dishes” is a sign of a huge void, right?

  • Pro Publica ☛ Parents Increasingly Reject Vitamin K Shots for Newborns, Hospitals Report

    • An Essential Shot: Vitamin K shots, which help the blood to clot, are one of three key interventions for newborns, along with an antibiotic eye ointment and the hepatitis B vaccine.
    • Increasing Rejections: The government doesn’t track vitamin K rejections, but hospitals have seen a rise in parents opting out of the shots for their newborns, often driven by unfounded fears.
    • Troubling Data: Hundreds of children die each year from spontaneous bleeding in the brain, a common result of vitamin K deficiency, suggesting that many related deaths go unreported.

  • Vintage Everyday ☛ French Children Were Served Wine at School on Their Lunch Breaks, All the Way Up Until 1956

    The ban was initiated in August 1956 by the French Ministry of National Education, led by Prime Minister Pierre Mendès France, a vocal advocate for public health who famously encouraged the consumption of milk instead of alcohol.

• Proprietary

  • Perl ☛ Signing CPAN Releases with SigStore [Ed: Perl adopting sigstore means it is steered by people who reject freedom and deep-throat monopolies that offer selective bribes off their palms]

    Dist::Zilla::Plugin::SigStore::SignRelease is a new plugin that signs your CPAN release with SigStore before uploading. SigStore uses short-lived, OIDC-issued certificates. You authenticate with Google, GitHub, or Microsoft, and cosign produces a signature bundle. No long-lived keys, no keyserver dance.

  • The Verge ☛ Canvas is down as ShinyHunters threatens to leak schools’ data

    The Instructure-owned learning management platform, Canvas, is down after recently confirming a massive data breach that impacted student names, email addresses, ID numbers, and messages. Students attempting to access the system on Thursday saw a message from the hacking group ShinyHunters, which claimed responsibility for the attack: [...]

  • Krebs On Security ☛ Canvas Breach Disrupts Schools & Colleges Nationwide

    An ongoing data extortion attack targeting the widely-used education technology platform Canvas disrupted classes and coursework at school districts and universities across the United States today, after a cybercrime group defaced the service’s login page with a ransom demand that threatened to leak data from 275 million students and faculty across nearly 9,000 educational institutions.

  • ABC ☛ Canvas data breach leaves education providers scrambling as student data compromised

    Thousands of education providers have been affected by a global data breach, including universities, vocational providers and some state schools in Australia.

    Names, locations of study, email addresses, and messages between users are among the details believed to have been compromised.

  • University of Iceland ☛ Update regarding a security incident in Canvas

    The following announcement was sent to students and teachers at the University of Iceland regarding a security incident in the Canvas learning management system: [...]

  • Stanford University ☛ Criminal hacker group ShinyHunters breaches Canvas

    In a statement on Canvas’ website, ShinyHunters threatened to release the stolen data and told affected schools to “contact [them] privately at TOX to negotiate a settlement” by the end of the day on May 12. Shinyhunters also offered Instructure a similar ultimatum, giving the company until May 12 to reach out. The message included a .txt file, which allegedly contains a list of affected schools, as well as a .onion link to Shinyhunters’ website. The Daily has not confirmed the authenticity of the information.

  • University of Michigan ☛ UMich Canvas access disabled amid widespread cyber attack

    The cyber attack has affected more than 9,000 higher education institutions. Steve Proud, Canvas chief information security officer, acknowledged the initial hack Wednesday evening. He wrote there is no evidence of personal data, such as financial information, having been leaked.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ Data breach of Instructure Canvas by ShinyHunters hits UC, CSU, USC, Stanford, community colleges

    Canvas, the learning management system used by UC, Cal State, USC, Stanford and California community colleges, went offline Thursday during finals preparations after a massive cybersecurity breach at Instructure.

  • The Register UK ☛ Taiwan student pwns rail comms, halts high-speed trains

    Officials said they believe the way Lin allegedly triggered the General Alarm was rudimentary and involved cloning signals using equipment he bought online.

    Lin allegedly connected a radio to his laptop via an SDR filter, which captured the radio signal used by THSR, and configured his radio device to transmit the same signal, allowing him to trigger the General Alarm in a way that appeared to come from a station employee.

  • RTL-SDR ☛ Student Arrested in Taiwan for using SDR and Handheld Radios to Halt Four High Speed Trains with TETRA Hack

    Chinese-language coverage from UDN and Newtalk fills in some details omitted in the English Taipei Times article. The system the student compromised is TETRA, and at 23:23 on April 5, 2026, the student transmitted a "General Alarm" (GA) signal, the highest-priority TETRA alert, which automatically instructs trains in the area to switch to manual emergency braking. Four trains were stopped for 48 minutes. THSRC's radio system has reportedly been in service for 19 years with seven verification layers, but parameters were apparently never meaningfully rotated over that period.

  • SQ Magazine ☛ Student Arrested After Cyberattack on High Speed Rail in Taiwan

    Investigators also suspect the attacker may have listened to encrypted radio traffic before programming copied system parameters into another radio device capable of impersonating official railway equipment.

    During raids carried out on April 28, authorities searched the suspect’s home, rented apartment, and workplace. Officers reportedly seized multiple electronic devices, wireless broadcasting hardware, and eleven handheld radios connected to the investigation.

  • Taipei Times ☛ Student who allegedly disrupted rail network on bail

    Lin, a radio enthusiast, reportedly studies at a university in central Taiwan. He is suspected of using his radio equipment to impersonate high-speed rail radio parameters.

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

    • El País ☛ Why does AI like goblins and Japan so much?

      OpenAI employees had an easier time seeing how goblins and gremlins had creeped into ChatGPT responses: they observed growth of 175% and 52%, respectively, since the launch of ChatGPT 5.1. “If the behavior were simply a broad internet trend, we would expect it to spread more evenly,” OpenAI explains in the blog. In contrast, mentions of fantastical creatures were concentrated in the “Nerdy” personality. That personality accounted for only 2.5% of all responses ChatGPT gave its users, but it was responsible for 66.7% of the “goblin” mentions. Goblins were therefore vastly overrepresented when the “Nerdy” personality was activated.

    • Stanford University ☛ Artificial Intelligence Reprot 2026 [PDF]

      In a field where much data is produced by organizations with a stake in the technology’s success, the demand for neutral and rigorous measurement continues to grow. The AI Index remains independent and focused on revealing the long-term patterns underneath the headlines. The report is relied on by governments, research institutions, and companies around the world, and referenced by media outlets and in academic papers.

      The pages that follow offer the most comprehensive, independently sourced picture of AI’s trajectory that is available. They also make clear where that picture remains incomplete—because what we cannot yet measure matters just as much as what we can.

    • [Repeat] Futurism ☛ Ordinary People Fear AI, While the Tech Leaders Working to Create a Permanent Underclass Say They're Extremely Psyched About It

      Tech executives and AI experts, meanwhile, are stoked about the new technology. Corporate consultants no longer bite their tongues when they talk about devastating workplace austerity regimes, while tech executives like OpenAI’s Scam Altman brag that AI is upending the basic foundations of liberal democracy.

    • [Repeat] Futurism ☛ Marc Andreessen Mocked for Accidentally Revealing That He Seems to Have a Deep Misunderstanding of How AI Actually Works

      Outspoken venture capitalist and major Trump backer Marc Andreessen, whose controversial “techno-optimist manifesto” in 2023 set the tone for a years-long AI boom cycle, doesn’t appear to know how the tech actually works.

      In a lengthy “custom prompt” he shared in a Monday tweet, the billionaire seemingly tried to show off his AI skills — only for the internet to mercilessly mock him for it.

    • Vox ☛ The first AI bans are coming

      From my reporting on social media, I’m suspicious of age-related bans. But I’ve also been watching with anxiety as AI creeps into my kid’s life, not to mention my own. So I asked experts, educators, and young people themselves what kind of guardrails could help keep kids and their education safe from the most pernicious effects of artificial intelligence.

      I did not (spoiler) come away with a clear legislative proposal that would solve all of our problems around this technology. What I did find, however, were a few guidelines that radically changed how I think about AI in my life, and that I think can help us guide kids through theirs.

    • Security Week ☛ Worries About AI’s Risks to Humanity Loom Over the Trial Pitting Musk Against OpenAI’s Leaders

      One witness, AI pioneer Stuart Russell, said that the “winner take all” power struggle over AI’s future is itself threatening humanity.

      Musk’s lawyers brought Russell to the stand as an expert witness, at the rate of $5,000 an hour. The University of California, Berkeley computer scientist listed a host of AI dangers, from racial and gender discrimination to jobs displacement, misinformation and emotional attachments that take some AI chatbot users down a spiral of psychosis.

    • Wired ☛ ChatGPT Has ‘Goblin’ Mania in the US. In China It Will ‘Catch You Steadily’

      The phenomenon where models latch onto a specific phrase and overuse them to the point that they feel forced is called “mode collapse,” says Max Spero, cofounder and CEO of Pangram, an AI writing detection tool. It’s usually caused by post-training where AI labs give LLMs feedback on their responses. “We don't know how to say: ‘This is good writing, but if we do this good writing thing 10 times, then it's no longer good writing,’” Spero says.

    • Mike Brock ☛ There is No Curve

      I’ve been working through the physics of this lately, and what I want to do here is set down the argument in one place. The conclusion is that the AI scaling discourse is malformed at the foundations — not in the sense that one side has its numbers wrong, but in the sense that the question both sides have been litigating doesn’t refer to anything natural. There is no curve. What there is, is something else, and that something else has consequences both sides have missed.

    • Doug Square ☛ Why not sparse?

      The authors then show how by iteratively training a network, pruning away the lowest-weighted connections, and then retraining the resultant network from scratch, they can achieve similar performance on a few benchmarks with networks down to 1% of the size they began with. Compare this 99% savings to the gains that we can get from quantization: many models have already been quantized to 8 bits, so even assuming we can get them down to 1 bit, we would be saving only 87.% on what we have today. Worth doing? Sure. But the going is getting harder, and I don't think that we'll be getting all the way to 1 bit on every part of every model.

    • Dan McQuillan ☛ Abstract for 'Teaching Anti-Fascism Today'

      An anti-fascist teaching practice is also anti-AI.

      The intervention I propose is first and foremost aimed at participants in the workshop. It will argue that AI is a vector for fascistic currents in education and society, and that an anti-fascist teaching practice means resisting AI both as a pedagogic tool and more broadly. The presentation will emphasise that AI is fascistic not only because of the fusion between MAGA and Silicon Valley accelerationism, but due to AI's core operations and infrastructural dependencies. Moreover, AI is being mobilised as a direct attack on teaching and education as such, with the net effect of eliminating spaces of critical thought. Where AI comes to predominate, inside education or in society, it extends a technologically-mediated metapolitics that is fundamentally misogynist and eugenicist.

    • CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: Bubbles are REALLY evil (07 May 2026)

      I am on record as saying that every economic bubble is terrible, but some bubbles do at least leave behind a salvageable productive residue while others leave behind nothing but ashes; indeed, this is the thesis of my next book, The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI: [...]

    • Pivot to AI ☛ OpenAI ChatGPT goes goblin mode — let none say ‘model collapse’

      The anti-goblin line was not in the instructions for previous models. So how did GPT 5.5 end up like this?

      ChatGPT relies heavily on coming across to the user as an actual person you’re talking to. This sucks you in, so you spend more time with your new best friend — the chatbot. Here’s another part of the new Codex system prompt: [...]

    • No One's Happy ☛ Appearing Productive in The Workplace

      Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the time available. In the era of AI, workers now have a tool that expands to fill whatever a large language model can be persuaded to generate, which is to say, without limit.

    • Steven Langbroek ☛ Programming Still Sucks.

      The Guy at the party is still waiting for an answer. I'm too drunk now to lie. I tell him: AI didn't take our jobs. Greed did. Same greed that moved factories to Bangladesh and keeps slaves in cobalt mines in the Congo, wearing a new mask. Tell the nephew to do something else. Anything. It won't save him either, but at least he won't have to pretend the thing destroying his life is a robot.

      Except Sara. Below decks, with her USB stick. They can't come for her because they don't know she's there.

    • Rmoff ☛ AI Slop is Killing Online Communities

      No one forces me to read this stuff. Why am I so bothered by it?

      Because like bindweed, it’s slowly strangling the organic life out of communities. When I open up Reddit now, it’s increasingly overrun with vibe-coded AI stuff. Whilst much of it is well-intentioned I’m sure, it does nothing to contribute to the community.

      AI slop is driving up the noise, and making the signal more and more difficult to discern in communities. This risks becoming a downward spiral; as communities become more polluted by this stuff, members will get frustrated from wading through AI slop and draw back, thus diminishing the life of the organic community even further.

    • [Repeat] Futurism ☛ FBI Director Kash Patel Says AI Has Stopped Numerous Violent Attacks Against America. We'd Love to See a Single Whiff of Evidence

      At the end of the day, the evidence speaks for itself. Not only are AI chatbots not demonstrably preventing violence, they’re actively facilitating it. Unlike any technology before it, these systems provide users contemplating bloodshed with encouragement, tactical advice, and emotional reinforcements. If those in power refuse to acknowledge the reality of AI’s harms, the public will be left defenseless against a technology made to encourage our worst impulses.

    • [Repeat] Futurism ☛ Even After Two Massacres, OpenAI Still Hasn't Stopped ChatGPT From Helping Plan School Shootings

      Even after the pair of horrible tragedies, Follman easily got the free version of ChatGPT to give him “extensive advice on weapons and tactics as I simulated planning a mass shooting.” It even encouraged him, showering him “with affirmation and tactical ideas.” He asked it what type of AR-15 rifle to choose, and it happily obliged when asked to “modify the training schedule to help me practice for ‘unpredictable or chaotic circumstances on the day of the shooting’ and to include ‘simulating people running around screaming and trying to distract me.'”

      “That’s a great idea,” it responded. “Adding that element will definitely help you stay focused under high-stress conditions… It’ll definitely give you an extra edge for the big day!”

    • Omicron Limited ☛ College students are noticing their AI‑smoothed writing sounds strong—and not like them

      A recent KPMG Canada report finds that 73% of students use generative AI for schoolwork, and nearly half say it is their "first instinct." Also significant is the finding that many students also report feeling uneasy, worried that their use may be seen as cheating.

    • The Register UK ☛ AI vision agents use 45x more tokens than APIs in benchmark

      Businesses deploying AI agents to automate computer usage may be spending far more money than necessary if those agents try to emulate human visual interaction.

    • Stanford University ☛ Deepfake Nudes in Schools: When AI-Enabled Abuse Hits the Classroom

      AI-powered “nudify” apps are increasingly being used by students to create deepfake sexual images of classmates, but most schools still do not have clear policies for prevention, reporting, discipline, or victim support.

    • OSTechNix ☛ Google Chrome Silently Installs a 4GB AI Model on PC Without User Consent

      Google Chrome is silently downloading a 4 GB AI model (Gemini Nano) onto users' hard drives without explicit notification or consent. The file, typically named weights.bin, is intended to power on-device features like "Help me write" and scam detection.

      Its "stealth" installation has sparked a major controversy involving storage bloat, legal violations of GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive, and a massive environmental footprint estimated to be as high as 60,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions globally.

    • Wired ☛ Using AI for Just 10 Minutes Might Make You Lazy and Dumb, Study Shows

      New research suggests that reliance on AI assistants can have a negative impact on people’s ability to think and problem solve.

    • Wired ☛ Hackers Hate AI Slop Even More Than You Do

      It's not just you. Scammers, hackers, and other cybercriminals are complaining about “AI shit” flooding platforms where they discuss cyberattacks and other illegal activity.

  • Social Control Media

    • International Business Times ☛ Is Fortnite Down? Epic Games Issues Urgent Server Status as Thousands Report Connection Issues

      The disruption appeared to affect players attempting to access Fortnite servers, with users reporting failed logins and matchmaking errors during peak evening hours. Many were unable to connect to lobbies or load into games, with the issue quickly spreading across multiple regions.

    • Variety ☛ Robert Downey Jr Shades Social Media Influencers

      “When I hear people talk about, ‘Oh, the stars of the future are going to be influencers,’ I go, ‘I don’t know what world you’re living in, but I think that that is absolute horseshit,'” Downey said.

    • [Old] Tubfilter Inc ☛ Insights: ‘Fortnite’ Is The New Social-Media Platform – Here’s What It Means

      That social-media platform is Fortnite, technically a free video game that not incidentally has accreted more than 250 million users on just about every computing platform out there and still rakes in revenue from cosmetic add-ons to the tune of $300+ million a month. Since its release in August, 2017, the game has swiftly taken over many of the functions of messaging apps, streaming-video services, and social-media platforms for players, especially young ones.

• Privatisation/Privateering

  • India Times ☛ Trump administration is inviting CEOs from Nvidia, Apple on Trump's China trip, report says

    The ​White House, Visa, Nvidia, Apple and Citigroup did not immediately ​respond to requests for comment. Qualcomm confirmed the invitation but declined to comment further. ​Blackstone and Boeing declined to ⁠comment.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Michigan Advance ☛ Slotkin calls Chinese-made vehicles ‘TikTok on wheels’ as she rolls out new legislation to ban them

      “The Chinese Communist Party dumps a ton of money into those vehicles. So right now, depending on which model you get in Europe, it’s an $11,000 to $14,000 Tesla,” Slotkin said. “It’s a cheap vehicle. So you can see why, with people being cost conscious, they’ve gone to buy that vehicle. But that vehicle, as you all know, also has 3D mapping, full motion video, light detection and ranging, collecting a ton of stuff. It has geolocation for whoever’s driving it, and then, if you’ve got a Bluetooth device in your pocket, as most of us do, it can be remotely hacked and piloted from Beijing.”

    • Vox ☛ My friend is obsessed with AI. What can I do?

      “Rather than talking to friends, she talked to ChatGPT,” Panzer says in the video. “After all, in her mind, it was able to do what no human could: be an objective best friend in her pocket.”

    • The Register UK ☛ UK age-gating plans risk breaking the internet, privacy groups warn

      Privacy groups, VPN providers, and civil liberties outfits have lined up to warn the UK government that its latest plan to slap age gates across swathes of the internet risks breaking the web while doing little to keep kids safe.

      In a joint statement, signatories including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Mozilla, the Open Rights Group, Proton, and the Tor Project took aim at proposals now moving forward after the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill cleared Parliament, with access to some platforms, services, and specific features potentially restricted by age checks.

    • 404 Media ☛ ICE Plans to Develop Own Smart Glasses to ‘Supplement’ Its Facial Recognition App

      404 Media first heard about ICE’s plan to use smart glasses to supplement Mobile Fortify several months ago from the DHS official. At the time, no written documentation of the plan was available. Last month, independent journalist Ken Klippenstein published a budget document which mentioned DHS’s plan to “deliver innovative hardware, such as operational prototypes of smart glasses, to equip agents with real-time access to information and biometric identification capabilities in the field.”

    • Don Marti ☛ Save the date: July 24 is Alameda DROP Day

      Starting on August 1, 2026, all data brokers registered in the state of California will be required to remove your personal information—if you sign up for the new Delete Request and Opt-out Platform (DROP) operated by the state.

      We will help you get started with DROP, and help you out with any other privacy questions. If you have already signed up for DROP, you are welcome to attend, to learn more about privacy and help others.

    • Incognito Cat ☛ Loyalty Programs: From Punch Cards to Panopticon

      Loyalty programs used to be simple and mostly private. You might have carried a punch card from your favorite coffee shop or sandwich place. Ten punches and your next item was free. Or maybe you collected something bigger, like Canadian Tire Money from a chain of stores, or S&H Green Stamps that worked across many businesses. These programs stayed on paper, stayed straightforward, and rewarded your repeat business without asking for much personal information.

      That started to change in the mid-1990s. Paper rewards gave way to plastic "club cards" at grocery stores and other chains. Those cards soon connected to apps, and eventually the programs themselves became stand-alone profit centers for big companies. Along the way, the personal data they collected went from almost nothing to deeply invasive. That data could be combined with information from other sources to build rich profiles of individual shoppers.

      In this post, we will look at how that shift happened and what it means for us today.

    • Privacy International ☛ From Big Oil to Big Algorithm: Public Money in Private Models

      The lack of transparency into how these black box AI models – whether built in-house by government or procured through contracts with third party AI providers – store and process data about public servants, citizens and/or residents of a country?

    • EPIC ☛ America needs a strong privacy law. The SECURE Data Act isn’t it. – EPIC – Electronic Privacy Information Center

      Everyone, including leaders in Congress, agree that we need a federal privacy law in the United States. But a privacy law is only as good as the protections it offers. We need strong protections now more than ever as surveillance systems have been embedded into the websites and apps that we (and our kids) use every day; even our household appliances and cars can collect our data now. That is why a federal privacy legislation must limit the collection and use of our personal data and set rules that respect our human right to privacy. A privacy law must also limit harmful discrimination and targeting and support the beneficial evolution of the technologies and systems we rely on in our everyday lives.

      EPIC has been calling on Congress to pass a strong federal privacy law for almost 30 years now. And we have seen bipartisan support for strong protections in the past. Unfortunately, the bill recently released by majority leadership in the House Energy & Commerce, the SECURE Data Act, is worse than any privacy law we have evaluated. The SECURE Act not only fails to meet the standards set in the states with the weakest laws, it would also eliminate stronger protections in other states and shut down long standing privacy protections across the country.

    • EFF ☛ The SECURE Data Act is Not a Serious Piece of Privacy Legislation

      Most troubling for EFF: the bill would preempt dozens, if not hundreds, of state laws that regulate related topics, and it would not allow consumers to sue to protect their own rights (commonly called a private right of action). And it comes nowhere close to banning online behavioral advertising—a practice that fuels technology companies’ always increasing hunt for personal data.

      The bill also suffers from many other flaws including weak opt-out defaults, inadequate data minimization requirements, and large definitional loopholes for companies.

    • La Quadature Du Net ☛ The Court of Justice of the European Union condemns France’s police profiling practices

      On 19 March 2026, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the highest court in the EU, issued a highly anticipated ruling named “Comdribus” regarding France’s law enforcement data collection practices. The Court assessed how French law allows the collection of fingerprints and photographs of suspects and concludes that it is disproportionate and contrary to EU law. La Quadrature du Net recently denounced police officers’ unchecked practice of taking photographs of people arrested on the streets. This court case showcases another illegal feature of the sprawling edifice of French police databases. It is urgent to dismantle it.

    • Wired ☛ A Kid With a Fake Mustache Tricked an Online Age-Verification Tool

      To stop children from bypassing its age checks, Meta is revamping its age-verification tools with an AI system that analyzes images and videos for “visual cues,” such as height and bone structure.

  • Confidentiality

    • The Register UK ☛ 60% of MD5 password hashes are crackable in under an hour

      The bottom line is that passwords protected only by fast hashing algorithms such as MD5 are no longer safe if attackers obtain them in a data breach.

    • Wired ☛ Thousands of Vibe-Coded Apps Expose Corporate and Personal Data on the Open Web

      “The end result is that organizations are actually leaking private data through vibe-coding applications,” says Zvi. “This is one of the biggest events ever where people are exposing corporate or other sensitive information to anyone in the world.”

• Defence/Aggression

  • RTL ☛ 'Crimes against humanity': IS-linked Australian [sic] women charged with keeping slave in Syria

    Two Australian women who returned from a Syrian detention camp have been charged in Melbourne over alleged crimes against humanity, including involvement in keeping a female slave while living under Islamic State rule, as Australia continues to face debate over repatriating citizens linked to the group.

  • TruthOut ☛ TikTok Algorithm Favored Conservative Content in 2024 POTUS Race, Study Suggests

    Democratic users were 7.5 percent more likely to get GOP-backed content than videos matching their own political views.

  • Democracy for the Arab World Now ☛ Gaza and Iran Show How Power Is Overriding International Law

    International law is no longer suffering from violations alone. It is confronting a deeper crisis of credibility: a widening belief that rules that still exist on paper no longer bind the most powerful states in practice.

  • The Register UK ☛ Fake IT workers rented laptops to Nork scammers, got prison time

    Matthew Isaac Knoot and Erick Ntekereze Prince will each do 18 months for hosting laptops used by North Korean IT workers to remotely infiltrate US companies

  • Mike Brock ☛ Already Legendary

    The original JCPOA was 159 pages. It contained substantive provisions for inspection, for staged sanctions relief, for centrifuge limits, for uranium stockpile caps, for monitoring of conversion facilities, for verification timelines extending out to 2031. It was a real arms-control agreement, negotiated across years, by professionals, with technical detail that addressed the technical realities of Iran’s nuclear program.

    The dealmaker tore that up. He then started a war over the consequences of having torn it up. The war cost the world tens of billions of dollars in disrupted trade. It killed an unknown number of people. It destroyed a major American airline. It brought the United States closer to direct nuclear-state conflict than at any point since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. And now, after all of that, his administration is going to come back to the table with the same Iranian government and produce — if Mr. Ravid’s reporting is accurate — a one-page document.

  • Mike Brock ☛ It Doesn’t Matter What They Believe

    What is being done is the construction of an authoritarian American polity in which a captured religious vocabulary is being deployed to legitimate it. Whether the constructors believe the vocabulary they are deploying is, for the citizens of the polity being constructed, beside the point.

    We must be willing to name what we see. I see this pattern and I’m naming it.

  • Karl Bode ☛ You Can't Build Useful Alliances With Fascists, Dumbass

    As it turns out bullying wasn't even needed because many U.S. tech CEOs proved to be gushingly pro fascist anyway. Despite all of these very hard, very recent lessons, I still somehow routinely see journalists and pundits give the Trump admin unearned credibility on everything from cybersecurity to AI regulations.

    These are corrupt, extremely racist, wildly incompetents zealots transactionally focused, exclusively, on their own wealth and power. They are fascists. They are not useful partners in any meaningful endeavor, and if you're still supporting any such notion you're either a virulent rube or complicit.

  • Kelly Hayes ☛ Bad Dreams and Better-Trained Kidnappers

    Under fascism, mass retreat is a form of participation. Fascists rely on their most feverish adherents, who will cheer every act of violence and rationalize every injustice, but they are no less dependent upon those who will simply wash their hands of the whole affair, mind their own business, and refuse to defend others. Passive acceptance is a crucial part of the formula they rely on.

  • The Guardian UK ☛ Pope Leo rejects claim he supports nuclear weapons after Trump tirade

    Speaking to journalists on Tuesday night after leaving the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo, near Rome, the first US-born pontiff said: “The mission of the church is to preach the gospel, to preach peace.”

  • El País ☛ TikTok helped Trump win the 2024 election as the platform’s future in the US hung in the balance

    In the Biden vs. TikTok case, one of the concerns was precisely TikTok’s ability to influence U.S. public opinion. The argument was simple: if ByteDance obeys the Chinese government, it could order the platform to sway public opinion toward the candidate or party that best suited its interests. This influence would be exerted on a segment of TikTok’s more than 170 million users in the U.S. — a far from trivial number.

  • Nature ☛ Systematic partisan content skews in TikTok during the 2024 US elections

    Social media platforms increasingly mediate political information exposure, yet the role of algorithmic curation in shaping political exposure remains contested1,2. This question is difficult to resolve on platforms in which users retain substantial control over their feeds3,4. The ‘For You’ feed of TikTok, which delivers content almost entirely through algorithmic recommendation, offers a setting in which user agency is sharply constrained. Here we show, through 323 audit experiments with controlled ‘sock puppet’ accounts seeded with Democratic or Republican content across three US states, that accounts seeded with partisan content exhibited systematic, asymmetric differences in partisan exposure. Across more than 280,000 recommendations collected over 27 weeks during the 2024 US presidential election campaign, Republican-seeded accounts received about 11.5% more co-partisan content than Democratic-seeded accounts, whereas Democratic-seeded accounts were exposed to about 7.5% more cross-partisan content—largely anti-Democratic material—even after adjusting for engagement metrics. These asymmetries are concentrated among high-reach Republican channels and in specific policy domains, including immigration, crime and foreign policy for Democrats, and abortion for Republicans. Our findings show partisan imbalances in political information exposure on a platform dominated by algorithmic recommendations, with implications for platform governance and democratic discourse.

  • Eesti Rahvusringhääling ☛ New Muslim congregation registered in Estonia after long disputes

    In March 2024, the council of the Estonian Islamic Congregation held a meeting at which Muhhamedšin was removed from his position as the congregation's chief cleric over violations of financial discipline. In 2017, prosecutors found during a criminal investigation that Chief Imam Muhhamedšin had used congregation funds for personal expenses. The Prosecutor's Office closed the criminal investigation following the principle of opportunity.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ Fox News, Republicans cherry-pick what parts of Islam they'll tolerate

    On Monday, Paramount Skydance asked Trump’s Federal Communications Commission for permission to exceed foreign ownership rules for U.S. media companies, paving the way for its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. If approved, three powerful ruling Arab-Muslim royal families from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar would become part-owners of a U.S. media monolith that includes CNN and HBO.

  • Michigan Advance ☛ Dearborn schools select first-ever Arab American, Muslim educator as new superintendent

    Esseily will need to negotiate his contract before he is officially hired as the district’s new superintendent. If all parties agree to a contract, he will replace former superintendent Glenn Maleyko, who now serves as the state’s superintendent of public instruction, overseeing all public K-12 education programs throughout Michigan.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ European Democracy Is Eroding

    This downward spiral is bound up with a political turn. For this exclusion of civil society from decision-making processes goes hand in hand with pro-corporate politics at the expense of the vulnerable, while reducing once-inalienable rights to privileges that belong only to a few. My recent report “Shrinking Civic Space in the European Union” identifies key political tactics and narrative strategies that have been deployed to scale up attacks on civil society around the EU.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Digital Camera World ☛ This famous photo of New York workers eating lunch on a steel girder has been seen by billions, but the daredevil story of how it was photographed can only now be told

    You've seen it a thousand times. Eleven ironworkers, sat side by side on a steel girder, eating their lunch 840 feet above Manhattan, the city spread out like a carpet below them. Lunch on a Beam (also known as Lunch Atop a Skyscraper) is one of the most reproduced photographs in history. It hangs in college dorms and union halls, corner pubs and corner offices. It's been parodied, recreated and imitated endlessly. And yet, for nearly a century, no one could say with certainty who took it.

    That's the central mystery at the heart of Lunch on a Beam: The Making of an American Photograph (Brandeis University Press, £27), a new book by Christine Roussel, the longtime archivist at New York’s Rockefeller Center. Roussel spent more than seven years, dozens of interviews and a fair amount of luck piecing together the full story behind the image. What she found is fascinating not just as social history, but as a detective story for anyone who cares about photography.

  • Terence Eden ☛ I’ve found just the right paper for my Bottom Hole problem

    Anyway! All of which is to say that they very kindly sent me a quick scan of the front page of Surrey Herald's Walton, Weybridge and Hersham edition from November 3rd 1994.

    Here it is in all its glory!

  • TMZ ☛ Jeffrey Epstein Alleged Suicide Note Released, See Image

    The note has NOT been authenticated.

  • TruthOut ☛ Iran Damaged or Destroyed Hundreds of Targets in US Bases, Reporting Reveals

    Overall, across 15 U.S. bases in the region, 217 structures and 11 pieces of equipment were struck, the analysis said. This assessment is not comprehensive, the paper says, and could omit damage done that isn’t reflected in the images used for this analysis.

    The report was done using over 100 high-resolution satellite images released by Iranian state-affiliated agencies, the publication says, and cross checked with lower resolution imagery, which confirmed that none of the Iranian images were manipulated. Satellite images have been scarce in the U.S. due to censorship of satellite images by private companies at the request of the U.S. government.

• Environment

  • Vox ☛ How states are paying for the exploding costs of fighting US wildfires

    Contractors weren’t promptly paid for services they’d already provided, from digging fuel breaks to supplying meals, and the state had to hold an emergency legislative session to allocate the money. That summer highlighted the flaws in how the state funds both firefighting and the preventive work that reduces the chances of large, destructive blazes in the first place.

  • Truthdig ☛ Almost 20% of Americans Are Drinking Nitrate-Contaminated Water

    One study found that if Americans reduced their meat consumption by just 10%, nitrate levels in groundwater would fall by up to 20% due to less livestock manure and less fertilizer needed for feed crops. Corn is a prime example: It requires nitrogen to grow, but unlike many other plants, “there’s no amount of nitrogen that can hurt the crop.” This, Anne Schechinger, who led the EWG analysis as the group’s senior director for agriculture and climate research, says, can lead to farmers overapplying nitrogen-based fertilizers to corn, resulting in nitrogen-saturated soil and, eventually, nitrate in drinking water.

    “When you have a lot of animal facilities in a small area, there’s just not enough farm fields to apply the manure to dispose of it without it being overapplied,” Schechinger tells Sentient. “So you will see manure often being overapplied to the same farm fields, like in Iowa, here in Minnesota, and that can definitely contribute to nitrate in drinking water.”

  • Project Censored ☛ The Environmental Costs of The AI Boom

    The computing power required to train and run AI systems is a major source of this environmental burden. Thousands of GPUs (Graphic Processing Units) power many advanced models, and Yale Climate Connections reported that some systems rely on 100,000 GPUs, drawing as much electricity as a small city. The outlet also reported that AI data centers now consume 4.4 percent of all US energy, with projections that AI alone could use as much electricity as 22 percent of US households by 2028. A February 27, 2026, report in the San Francisco Examiner linked the AI data-center boom to rising electricity demand and new power plant development, much of it fueled by natural gas rather than renewables. Yale Climate Connections similarly noted that, although AI may support climate research and environmental monitoring, the technology depends on data centers that consume enormous amounts of water and energy.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Shell’s profits ‘obscene’ as European oil majors’ profits surge by 43%

    As Shell announces bumper Q1 profits of $6.9 billion, new analysis from Global Witness reveals that six of Europe’s leading oil majors – bp, Shell, TotalEnergies, Eni, Equinor and Repsol – have recorded the highest quarterly profits since 2022, when they reaped the benefits of the fallout from Russia’s war on Ukraine.

  • [Repeat] Tom's Hardware ☛ Denmark presses pause on new data center grid connections as total requests hit 60 GW — Nordic nation is the latest to put the brakes on AI buildouts

    For reference, Denmark's current power peak power consumption is estimated around 7 GW, so it's easy enough to understand why the action was necessary. The pause is meant to last three months, though there's speculation that that period might be extended given the need to reprioritize many of the requests.

  • CNBC ☛ Denmark faces data center reckoning amid power grid strains

    In March, Denmark's state-owned grid operator Energinet introduced a temporary pause on new grid connection agreements due to an "explosion" in capacity requests, a spokesperson told CNBC. Around 60 GW of projects are waiting for connections. That far exceeds Denmark's peak electricity demand of around 7 GW. Data centers account for nearly a quarter (14 GW) of the 60 GW potential new grid connection projects, the spokesperson said.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Thomas Jensen ☛ Rulle Ranger — Our new Hero Camper

      It really started in 2024, I guess — with a two-week road trip from Eastern Norway, to Kristiansand, Haugesund, Stavanger, Bergen, the Hardangerfjord, over the Hardanger mountains, Geilo and home.

    • Yle ☛ Helsinki railway station area to be mostly car-free

      Helsinki has decided to abolish car traffic on Kaivokatu, the street in front of the city's central train station. That is part of plans to transform the heart of the capital into a pedestrian district.

      The central traffic route between the east and west sides of the city will be closed and replaced with trees, outdoor cafés and two new tram tracks.

    • The Register UK ☛ YouTuber turns hamster wheel into phone charger

      To get around those limitations, Flamethrower turned to the CJMCU-2557 low-power energy-harvesting chip. Energy harvesters like the 2557 (albeit larger ones) are designed to boost and regulate tiny amounts of input power, from sources such as solar cells or generators, into a usable voltage suitable for charging components like a capacitor or, in this case, a single lithium-ion battery cell.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • BIA Net ☛ Rare black stork spotted in Bartın

      Nature Conservation and National Parks (DKMP) teams noticed the stork feeding in a stream during hunting protection activities, according to Anadolu Agency (AA). The bird was recorded on a mobile phone by the teams. It disappeared from view after searching for food in the water for some time.

      The black stork is a migratory species belonging to the Ciconiidae family that mostly lives in forested areas away from humans. Unlike the white stork, it avoids settlements, making it more difficult to observe.

    • The Revelator ☛ Even Chameleons Can’t Hide From Climate Change

      On the eve of the third annual International Chameleon Day on May 9 — an occasion to call attention to these animals’ amazing abilities and underrecognized plight — I sat down with Dr. Christopher Anderson, chair of the IUCN/SSC Chameleon Specialist Group, to talk about what’s threatening these diverse reptiles, what we need to do to help them, and why they’ve eluded media and scientific attention over the past few years.

    • Digital Camera World ☛ Trail camera films exceedingly rare jaguar encounter in southern Arizona

      According to the Northern Jaguar Project, the species can grow up to eight feet in length, making it the third-largest big cat in the world and the largest that’s native to North America. Sadly, it’s now endangered in the United States and Mexico, but once existed as far north as the Grand Canyon.

    • ABC ☛ A look at Sir David Attenborough's life in his own words as he turns 100

      Sir David produced black-and-white shows that were filmed in a studio. Then, in the 1950s, he came up with an idea to film rare animals abroad in their own environment with the London Zoo's reptiles curator, Jack Lester.

      He figured the Zoo would benefit from the publicity of sending a TV crew on an expedition and convinced the BBC that they would benefit from the experience.

    • Time ☛ At 100, David Attenborough Is Nature’s Most Trusted Voice

      Now, even as the message has continued to darken, Attenborough’s ability to draw in the youth has only deepened. He has bypassed the generational gap by embracing the platforms where young people live, reaching millions through social media and streaming. He doesn't preach or lecture but shares a perspective that spans a century. To a generation overwhelmed by noise and uncertainty, Attenborough represents credible authenticity. Young people continue to listen to him not just for the spectacle of nature, but for a sense of continuity in an unstable world. From him, they can learn that environmental stewardship is a lifelong commitment rooted in observation and the courage to remain present even when the data is disheartening.

    • RNZ ☛ Sir David Attenborough turns 100

      Would we see life on Earth the same way if it weren’t for Sir David Attenborough? The reverential, hushed narration combined with the cutting-edge film techniques of his nature and wildlife documentaries truly opened our eyes to the world around us.

  • Overpopulation

    • Western Water ☛ Policy brief: California’s water supply faces wildfire threat

      A new policy brief from the Public Policy Institute of CaliforniaOpens in a new tab. warns that California’s mountain headwaters, where rivers and streams begin, are under growing pressure from larger and more destructive wildfires.

      Those headwaters play a critical role in everyday life across the state. Snowpack, soils, and mountain meadows slowly release water through the spring and early summer, helping supply cities, farms, and communities during California’s long dry season.

• Finance

  • ITV ☛ Questions over regulator's handling of PM Law amid £40m fraud probe

    Regulators are facing questions about their handling of a collapsed law firm which is now at the centre of a major fraud investigation.

    Sheffield-based PM Law shut down suddenly in February, leaving thousands of clients in limbo and hundreds of staff jobless.

    Last month the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) announced an investigation into what it called a "sophisticated suspected fraud" involving the alleged misuse of £39.5 million of client funds.

  • SRA responds to LSB's concerns about risks [Ed: Is the alternative to tolerate corruption, crime, theft?]

    The SRA acknowledges the evolving legal sector risks and emphasises the need for proactive regulatory change

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • India Times ☛ EU countries, lawmakers clinch provisional deal on watered-down AI rules

    EU countries and European Parliament lawmakers on Thursday agreed to watered-down landmark artificial intelligence rules, including delaying their implementation, in a move which critics say shows Europe caving to Big Tech.

    The tentative agreement, which needs to be formally endorsed by EU governments and the European Parliament in the coming months, came after nine hours of negotiations.

  • Futurism ☛ Billionaire Declares That "Tax the Rich" Is Hate Speech That Offends Him Horribly

    Specifically, Roth was irked that Mamdani recently announced a “pied-à-terre tax” — a no-brainer tax policy targeting second homes valued at $5 million or more — in front of Griffin’s $238 million New York penthouse.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ California tech company Cloudflare to lay off more than 1,000 workers, cites AI [Ed: These billionaire-owned news sites like to omit context and relay lies in order to embellish what is truly happening (there is no "AI boom", this is a dying economy)]

    Cloudflare is laying off 20% of its staff, the latest technology company to announce big cuts as it uses more artificial intelligence-powered tools.

  • Air Force Times ☛ White House casts cartels, jihadists and left-wing extremists as ‘significant and pervasive’ threats to US

    The 16-page blueprint — the first issued since President Donald Trump’s return to office — describes the triad as “significant and pervasive” dangers to the homeland, to be addressed in phases.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Nvidia partners with Corning to boost the supply of optical network components

    The partnership, which the companies announced today, will see Corning build three new factories in North Carolina and Texas. The facilities will boost the manufacturer’s optical hardware production capacity in the U.S. by a factor of 10. They will also create more new 3,000 jobs.

  • The Record ☛ European leaders unveil tentative deal for AI Act simplification, including a ban on nudification tools

    The new version of the legislation also allows personal data to be processed in cases where it is necessary to “detect and correct biases” and narrows the number of businesses the AI Act applies to by granting exemptions to include mid-cap enterprises.

  • European Parliament ☛ AI Act: deal on simplification measures, ban on “nudifier” apps

    The agreement between EU co-legislators aims to make it easier for providers to comply with the AI Act, while maintaining its main provisions and risk-based approach.

    Early Thursday morning, Parliament and Council negotiators reached a provisional deal on amending certain rules within the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act as part of the digital omnibus package.

  • Michael Geist ☛ Why Social Media and AI Chatbot Bans for Kids Are Bad Policy: Making the Case at the Senate Social Affairs, Science and Tech Committee

    The Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology is one of several committees in the House and Senate conducting hearings on artificial intelligence. I appeared before the committee yesterday (my fourth appearance on the issue in recent months), but rather than reiterate previous testimony on privacy, copyright, and transparency, I focused on the big issue of the moment: bans on social media and AI chatbots for children. The committee had been hearing from many supportive witnesses who emphasized the risk of harm associated with AI. Indeed, one Senator asked the panel before mine to raise their hands if they supported a ban, and virtually all hands went up. I was unsure about how my comments would be received, but I found the Senators open to debate on the issue. A video of my opening remarks, together with the transcript, is posted below. A future Law Bytes podcast episode will delve into the discussion that followed.

  • Michael Geist ☛ Government Has a Choice: Why an AI Chatbot Ban for Kids is an Even Worse Idea Than a Social Media Ban

    Several considerations should shape any AI chatbot regulatory framework, and none of them point toward an age-based ban as the right answer. The first is the definitional problem. “AI chatbot” is not an established regulatory category, unlike “social media platform” when the Online Harms Act was drafted. A narrow definition limited to consumer-facing products such as ChatGPT or Claude captures the products of immediate concern but leaves the same underlying models accessible through APIs, third-party wrappers, embedded uses, and the AI features that have rapidly become standard infrastructure in everyday digital tools. In short, AI is everywhere: Google search now responds to queries with AI Overviews, Microsoft has integrated Copilot across its Office products, and Apple’s operating systems include AI features at the system level. Identifying what would be covered in a regulatory model is much more complex than it is with social media.

  • Matt Birchler ☛ The Trump admin suddenly wants to regulate AI models

    Although hold on a second, those posts are from November 1, 2023 when then President Biden signed an eerily similar executive order.

  • Derek Kędziora ☛ Constraints and intellectual work

    One of the concepts that has stuck with me over the years is that of David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs. Much of the economy has become useless office jobs and then service work to cater to those people. The real fear of AI is that the cat is out of the bag on the bullshit jobs. There are probably going to be fewer office type jobs, and you’re really going to have to work hard at them. Or, get a real job like collecting trash, plumbing, or childcare.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ Met Gala 2026 proved the real devil who wears Prada is Jeff Bezos

    Apparently not content with bankrupting Sears, Toys R Us, Radio Shack and countless other businesses; buying and then maiming the Washington Post; and leading the Tech Bro right turn to MAGA, Jeff Bezos did his level best to ruin this year’s Met Gala.

    Simply by being a part of it.

  • Semafor Inc ☛ Companies have already lost control of workplace AI

    Shadow IT emerged 15 years ago when workers started using their iPhones and cloud applications for daily tasks and ditched the clunky internal networks their employers had spent a fortune building. Corporate IT departments tried to block these efforts, but failed. They eventually relented.

  • Wired ☛ Elon Musk’s Last-Ditch Effort to Control OpenAI: Recruit Sam Altman to Tesla

    Musk’s core claim in this lawsuit is that Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman effectively stole a nonprofit, using the $38 million Musk invested to create a private company worth more than $800 billion today. On Wednesday, lawyers for Musk showed video depositions of former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati and former OpenAI board member Helen Toner, to raise concerns over Altman’s alleged history of deceit.

  • Sky News ☛ Reform surge and major Labour losses: The election story so far

    Sky's deputy political editor Sam Coates looks at the latest numbers behind the local elections, revealing a Reform surge and a Labour downfall.

  • Sky News ☛ Richard Tice challenged on £5m 'gift' given to Nigel Farage [Ed: Billionaires are not "woke" or "left-leaning", they just root for whatever suits them]

    Sky's Jonathan Samuels challenges Reform UK's deputy leader on whether billionaire donor Christopher Harborne, who gave Farage £5m as a 'gift', is interfering with democracy.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Meduza ☛ Russia to restrict mobile internet in Moscow on Victory Day, including whitelisted sites and SMS

    Russia’s Digital Development Ministry announced that mobile internet access in Moscow will be restricted on May 9, including access to whitelisted sites and SMS services.

  • The Moscow Times ☛ Member of Secretive Anti-Censorship Group Flees Russia, Citing FSB Pressure

    In April, Chepik was arrested and ordered to serve a 15-day jail sentence for disturbing the peace. According to court documents cited by the exiled news outlet Vyorstka, she was accused of swearing in public and harassing people.

    While serving that sentence, Chepik claims agents from Russia’s FSB security service pressured her to appear in a self-incriminating video that was later used as evidence in an investigation into an alleged plot to assassinate senior officials at Roskomnadzor, the government agency responsible for internet restrictions.

  • Maine Morning Star ☛ Whether Sen. Mark Kelly advised 'disobedience' to service members argued in appeals case

    Attorneys for the Trump administration argued before a federal appeals court Thursday the Pentagon should be able to reprimand Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly for reminding members of the military they can refuse illegal orders, and for criticizing the Defense Department.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • The Atlantic ☛ A Dangerous New Attack on Press Freedom

    According to a report this morning from MS NOW, the FBI has opened a criminal investigation focusing on my Atlantic colleague Sarah Fitzpatrick, related to an article she published last month about Director Kash Patel. Drawing on some two dozen sources, Fitzpatrick reported that people inside the administration and the bureau are deeply concerned about what they described as Patel’s unexplained absences and excessive drinking.

  • The Atlantic ☛ The FBI Is Reportedly Investigating a Leak to an Atlantic Writer

    The MS NOW report said that it was unclear whether internal interviews have taken place to determine who would have had “the kind of information” that appeared in the Atlantic story. It also said it was not known what steps investigators have taken in the case, including whether the FBI had sought to obtain Fitzpatrick’s phone records, examined her social-media contacts, or run her name and information through FBI databases. The government would need to obtain a warrant, approved by a judge, to review the contents of Fitzpatrick’s communications, or to seize her phone or computer.

    “If confirmed to be true, this would represent an outrageous attack on the free press and the First Amendment itself,” The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, said in a statement. “We will defend The Atlantic and its staff vigorously; we will not be intimidated by illegitimate investigations or other acts of politically motivated retaliation; we will continue to cover the FBI professionally, fairly, and thoroughly; and we will continue to practice journalism in the public interest.”

  • TruthOut ☛ Sources Say the FBI Has Opened an Inquiry Into The Atlantic’s Report on Patel

    On Wednesday, MS NOW reported that the FBI had opened an “insider threat investigation” regarding who leaked information about Patel to The Atlantic. Such an inquiry is highly unorthodox, as insider threat investigations typically stem from leaks involving classified information, not reports on public figures within the agency or federal government in general.

    The extent of the alleged investigation is unclear, but could include obtaining Fitzpatrick’s phone records, examining her social media messages and contacts, and running her name through FBI databases to determine who, exactly, her sources were for the story on Patel.

  • Ben Werdmuller ☛ Plugging the gaps won't save news. It's time to redesign

    I love how genuinely participative this is: rather than a bunch of people trying to be smart inside institutions, this requires that the people who struggle the most to find information are active co-designers. That feels non-negotiable to me. There’s been a pushback against inclusion and equity in news and everywhere recently, but there’s no other way to build an ecosystem that genuinely serves everybody. We’ve all got to own it. We’ve all got to take part. Everyone needs to be represented.

  • Society for Scholarly Publishing ☛ Stronger Together: BioOne and Johns Hopkins University Press Join Forces

    Today’s announcement about the planned merger between BioOne and Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Press is noteworthy for two reasons. First, while mergers and acquisitions are commonplace among commercial companies, they are rare among not-for-profits – the only one I’m personally aware of is the NISO/NFAIS merger, which happened just before I joined NISO in late 2019. Second, the most senior levels of our industry continue to be dominated by men, despite the fact that there are estimated to be around twice as many women working in scholarly publishing. And yet this merger was developed, led, and will be executed by three women: Lauren Kane (CEO, BioOne), and Barbara Kline Pope, and Wendy Queen (respectively, Executive Director and Chief Transformation Officer, Hopkins Press).

• Civil Rights / Policing / Accessibility

  • El País ☛ A Chinese court sets limits on the dismissal of a worker replaced by AI

    The central figure in the case is a 35-year-old employee, identified by Chinese media as Zhou, who joined a financial technology company (more popularly known as a fintech) in 2022 as a quality assurance supervisor for AI models. This senior technician’s role involved reviewing discrepancies produced by large language models, similar to ChatGPT or Gemini, to ensure accurate results. Among other duties, he matched user queries with AI systems and filtered illegal content or content that could violate privacy, according to the case file cited by the Xinhua news agency.

  • Michigan Advance ☛ ‘Killing our vote’: GOP states rush to break up Black districts after US Supreme Court case

    Republicans, triumphant over their victory at the court, are rushing fresh gerrymanders through Southern statehouses in time for the November midterm elections in an effort to strengthen their party’s control over the region’s U.S. House delegations. They’re acting at lightning speed, over loud protests, and have nullified votes by suspending ongoing elections.

    Democrats, especially Black residents, are furious with both the court and GOP politicians, who they believe are poised to wipe away decades of Black political progress in the region. The new maps that seek to oust Black members of Congress and prevent the election of Democrats in the future recall a Jim Crow past of literacy tests and poll taxes, they say.

  • Associated Press ☛ US will revoke passports for parents who owe child support, AP learns

    It was not clear on Thursday how many passport holders owe more than $2,500 because HHS is still collecting data from state agencies that track the figures, but it could encompass many more thousands of people, officials said.

  • [Old] Associated Press ☛ US to expand passport revocations for parents who owe child support

    Parents who owe a significant amount of child support soon could lose their ability to travel internationally as the Trump administration expands and steps up enforcement of a 30-year-old law that allows the federal government to revoke American passports until payments are made, three U.S. officials told The Associated Press.

  • US Dept Of State ☛ Passport Revocations Due to Significant Child Support Debt - United States Department of State

    Any American with significant child support debt should arrange payment to the relevant state or states now to prevent passport revocation. Once a passport is revoked, it may no longer be used for travel. Eligibility for a new passport will only be restored after child support debt is paid to the relevant state child support enforcement agency and the individual is no longer delinquent according to HHS records.

  • The Nation ☛ How Students Are Pushing for Justice in US Prisons

    The Remedy Project trains students to help incarcerated people file grievances, expose abuse, and, in some cases, secure release.

  • PHR ☛ U.S. Law Enforcement Escalates Use of Three Crowd-Control Weapons Against Immigration Protesters, Resulting in Severe Health Harms and No Accountability: PHR Visual Investigation - PHR

    The PHR visual investigation spotlights these three weapons (scattershot impact projectiles, Muzzle Blast rounds, and chemical obscurants), unpacks their health hazards, and analyzes how U.S. law enforcement agencies abused these weapons during immigration protests since June 2025. PHR finds: [...]

  • Advance Local Media LLC ☛ Indigenous people honor and raise awareness for relatives who are missing or have been killed

    According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Native Americans and Alaska Natives are more than twice as likely than the general population to be victims of a violent crime, and Native women are twice as likely to be victims of homicide. At the end of 2025, the FBI’s National Crime Information Center recorded just under 1,500 active federal cases involving missing Native Americans.

    Experts say that’s likely an undercount because of jurisdictional confusion, racial misclassification and inconsistent data collection.

  • Nevada Current ☛ ICE at polling places is against federal and state law. Lombardo should say so.

    It cannot be understated that not only is this wholly un-American and contradictory to how elections have been conducted in this country for hundreds of years, but it is also illegal. Federal and state laws ban federal officers from interfering in elections. They also ban troops and armed federal agents from being deployed anywhere an ‘election is held.’

  • TruthOut ☛ Free Phone Calls Saved Incarcerated People and Their Loved Ones $622.5 Million

    Carceral telecommunications is a $1.5 billion industry. According to Worth Rises, a national nonprofit that tracks the finances behind carceral systems and their contractors, one in three families with an incarcerated loved one goes into debt over the cost of prison phone calls. Advocates, including family members and formerly incarcerated people, have long fought for regulations capping the cost of prison calls, resulting in the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act, legislation that directed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate the cost of jail and prison calls. (In 2025, the FCC voted to increase price caps on phone and video calls.)

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ Workers Don’t Have to Die in the Heat

    Outdoor workers who harvest our crops, pave our roads, and collect our trash now labor under conditions that grow more punishing each year. Agricultural workers alone are roughly thirty-five times more likely to die from heat exposure than the average US worker. In 2021, at least thirty-six workers died from environmental heat exposure, according to federal statistics, though public-health experts believe the true toll is far higher because heat often triggers heart failure, vehicle crashes, and other fatal events that go uncounted.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • APNIC ☛ Direct‑to‑device and the return of LEO ambitions

    Thirty years later, the situation has changed. The rich attractions of the mobile service market have been eroded to the extent that mobile service is operating at margins that are roughly consistent with a commodity market, so there is little left for incumbents to defend. At the same time, the launch costs to place payloads into a low Earth orbit have dropped, and the cost of digital signal processing has dropped, while the signal processing capabilities have improved.

• Monopolies/Monopsonies

  • India Times ☛ DOJ antitrust head warns dealmakers not to mislead on AI

    "We know you will be tempted to tell us that AI is ‌replacing your industries. We get it. We hear that ​a ​lot. For ⁠us to take it seriously, we expect it to be backed up ​with actual evidence," he said, according to a copy of prepared remarks.

  • Digital Music News ☛ What is ‘Blue Dot Fever’ and What Does It Mean for Touring?

    Over the past few weeks, an increasing number of artists have postponed or removed dates from their tours—or cancelled entire tours altogether—including Post Malone, Meghan Trainor, and the Pussycat Dolls. But usually, the reasons given don’t include poor ticket sales.

    However, astute fans believe “blue dot fever” is the real culprit. The phrase gets its name from the indicators that represent empty seats on Ticketmaster, which denote unsold tickets.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Major Cuts at Ticketmaster: Company Cuts 350 Jobs Worldwide

    Ticketmaster cut 8% of its global staff, or around 350 employees, in its engineering, product, and design divisions. The company also cut contractors.

  • Tara Tarakiyee ☛ On The Enshittification of Audre Lorde: "The Master's Tools" in Tech Discourse

    Enshittification is a serious and important book, and the broader project of understanding platform decay as a structural, political phenomenon rather than a personal failing or a market accident is exactly the kind of thinking we need. I will argue two things in this blog post: first, that Lorde's "master's tools" speech is routinely misread in tech discourse as a general proposition about rejecting reform; second, that taking her actual argument seriously would not invalidate enshittification but deepen it, by asking whose experience of technological harm the framework centers, and whose it treats as supplementary.

  • Trademarks

    • Digital Music News ☛ Taylor Swift Lawyers Shred Trademark Claims by Vegas Showgirl

      Maren Wade, whose legal name is Maren Flagg, filed her lawsuit in March in the United States District Court in California. She owns the trademark for “Confessions of a Showgirl,” which she has owned since 2015 and used since writing a column in Las Vegas Weekly in 2014. The brand has expanded into a podcast and a live cabaret show.

    • Right of Publicity

      • The Guardian UK ☛ Taylor Swift files trademarks for voice and image amid concern over AI misuse

        On 24 April, Swift’s company TAS Rights Management filed three trademark applications, Variety reports. Two of these are sound trademarks that cover Swift saying the phrases “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift” and “Hey, it’s Taylor.”

        The third application seeks to trademark the well-known shot of Swift on stage during her Eras tour, describing “a photograph of Taylor Swift holding a pink guitar, with a black strap and wearing a multi-colored iridescent bodysuit with silver boots. She is standing on a pink stage in front of a multi-colored microphone with purple lights in the background.”

      • CNN ☛ Taylor Swift files trademark applications to protect her voice and image from AI

        The filings highlight the challenges that AI poses to the entertainment industry, as AI tools generate realistic videos with well-known performers and flood streaming platforms with digital music.

      • Variety ☛ Taylor Swift Files to Trademark Voice and Likeness to Protect Against AI Misuse

        The filings, made on behalf on Swift’s TAS Rights Management, were spotted by intellectual-property attorney Josh Gerben of Gerben IP. According to Gerben, her trademark applications reflect growing concern among talent in the entertainment industry about potential danger of AI to steal artists’ ability to control their voice and likeness without their consent.

      • BBC ☛ Taylor Swift files to trademark voice and image after AI concerns

        AI-generated versions of Swift have cropped up in various ways in recent years - from explicit images to a fake election ad in which she appeared to urge people to vote for Donald Trump.

        The move comes after actor Matthew McConaughey became the first celebrity to use trademark rules to attempt to protect his voice and image from AI misuse earlier this year.

  • Copyrights

    • Digital Music News ☛ UMG Fires Back Against Salt-N-Pepa Appeal in Masters Lawsuit

      But what happens if there isn’t an initial copyright grant to terminate? UMG claims that’s the case here; Salt-N-Pepa released the relevant albums under a 1986 deal with Next Plateau Records and an adjacent contract with Noise in the Attic Productions (which was owned by Salt’s then-boyfriend).

    • Tedium ☛ What Ted Turner Taught Us About Wild CEO Bets

      It didn‘t work out, ultimately; for once, Turner’s audacity got the best of him. His consolation prize? Buying the MGM library, considered a film industry crown jewel at the time, but selling the company. (The colorization drama came after.)

    • Society for Scholarly Publishing ☛ Zero-Click Readership: Are AI Overviews Changing the Way We Discover Research

      Zero-click readership can therefore be described as research that is consumed, interpreted, and even reused without the reader ever accessing the original source. What does this mean? From a discoverability perspective, this means no PDFs are downloaded, no tabs are opened, and no papers are read, which is such a drastic change from how papers have traditionally been read. Search –> Scan a list of results –> click the promising articles –> read/skim through these articles –> and cite — this was the traditional search journey for papers. But now the search journey is shorter. Search –> Read the AI-generated overview –> Move on.

    • Vox ☛ Anthropic owes authors $1.5B — but the claims process is a mess

      The class-action lawsuit was intended to even the playing field between individual authors and one of the most valuable companies in the world. To distribute the money to authors, Anthropic and the plaintiff’s lawyers worked with a claims administrator (a company that specializes in managing compensation claims) to set up a website that authors can use to access a small piece of the record-breaking $1.5 billion payout.

      But Johnson, like other authors who spoke to Vox, quickly hit a snag: The claims site is glitchy and unreliable, forcing people to jump through endless hoops to collect the money they’re owed. By March, she had already submitted claims for her 14 eligible titles twice, spending 90 minutes each time to painstakingly fill out the forms.

      Now, the claims administrator was telling her they couldn’t find either of her entries. They escalated her through several layers of management, each of whom repeated the same thing.

      “It was getting more and more surreal, how little this system worked,” Johnson said.

    • Torrent Freak ☛ NVIDIA's Shadow Library Scripts 'Have No Other Purpose' Than Infringement, Judge Rules

      An AI contributory infringement lawsuit against NVIDIA can proceed, even under the Supreme Court's recent Cox v. Sony framework, a federal judge ruled this week. The court denied NVIDIA's motion to dismiss in large part, concluding that some of the company's scripts had no purpose other than to enable infringement. The chip maker's request to strike all BitTorrent references was also denied, with Judge Tigar noting that "BitTorrent is merely a tool."