Leftovers

• Gregory Hammond ☛ Nobody asked me - Why I believe men dislike their birthday

  Inspired by Dr. Amy Marschall’s Nobody Asked Me posts, I thought I would do one of my own. Why? Not only do I have a different answer to what the advice columnist gave, but I’m also a male who can relate to not caring about their birthday. This is not meant to be a critique to the columnist’s answer, but to provided a different viewpoint.

• Science / Mathematics / Computer Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Engineers Found a Genius Way to Slash Data Center Energy Use

    The world needs this.

  • Science Alert ☛ A Strange Moon Orbiting Neptune May Be The Sole Survivor of an Apocalypse

    One of the most violent events the Solar System has ever witnessed.

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Identify 2 Distinct Subtypes of Autism in The Brain

    A potentially big step forward.

  • Science Alert ☛ Icebergs Are Transforming Deep-Sea Ecosystems, Scientists Discover

    Far from the glaciers they calve from.

  • Science Alert ☛ A Mass Drone Failure in Australia Actually Shows How They Work

    What happens when things go wrong?

  • Science Alert ☛ Nearly All Summer Deaths From This 'Silent' Killer Were Preventable, WHO Says

    We need a coordinated response.

• Hardware

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Researchers recycle old phones and cluster them into ‘computing platforms’ that operate as a low-cost data center — says processors on modern smartphones deliver higher single-core performance than comparable multicore servers

    A team of researchers from UC San Diego found that 'old' smartphones from 2023 could be combined to build a server capable of running apps locally, instead of relying on cloud servers located on a distant site.

  • CNX Software ☛ Gateworks Catalina GW9200 NXP i.MX 95 SBC features Flexible Socket Adapter sockets for M.2 or mPCIe modules

    Last March, Gateworks introduced the Catalina SBC family, starting with the GW9200 board, based on NXP i.MX 95 SoC for industrial Edge Hey Hi (AI) applications, and featuring Flexible Socket Adapter (FSA) sockets to accommodate either mini PCIe or M.2 module adapters, depending on requirements. We missed the original announcement, but the new SBC family was brought to our attention when Ezurio announced the acquisition of Gateworks last week.

  • CNX Software ☛ Creality Sermoon S1 review – Part 3: 3D scanning with Khadas Mind 2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB dock

    At the end of last year, I received a Creality Sermoon S1 high-end 3D scanner for review. After checking the specifications and going through an unboxing in the first part of the review, I used the 3D scanner with an defective chip maker Intel Core i5-13500H laptop with 16GB of RAM running Creality Scan 4 software on backdoored Windows 11. The laptop specs were below the minimum hardware requirements (NVIDIA GPU, 32GB RAM), and while I managed to scan a face and bust using infrared mode, it was a struggle with 4 to 5 FPS scanning, and I wasn’t able to use Blue light scanning at all.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Futurism ☛ GLP-1 Drugs Appear to Prevent Cancer, New Research Finds

    "The potential benefit is real, and it makes biological sense."

  • Futurism ☛ Massive Protests Erupt in the Streets of Kenya Due to the Convicted Felon Administration’s Mysterious Ebola Facility

    "They say they don't want this facility in their town."

• Proprietary / SaaS

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

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ OpenAI hit with sweeping probe from massive coalition of 42 US state attorneys general just days after reported IPO filing — subpoena targets Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot maker’s ads, data practices, handling of minors, model sycophancy, and safety policies

      State attorneys general have opened a broad investigation into OpenAI, subpoenaing documents on ads, user retention, data handling, minors, health data, model behavior, and safety policies.

    • Futurism ☛ Consulting Firm’s Report on How Awesome Hey Hi (AI) Is Found to Contain Idiotic Hey Hi (AI) Hallucinations

      Well done, everyone.

  • Social Control Media

    • The Straits Times ☛ ‘Where do we go now?’: Malaysia’s under-16 social control media ban leaves teens detached and displaced

      Malaysia joins a growing group of countries that restrict youth exposure to social control media.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ HSBC’s Hong Kong banking apps down in second outage of year

      HSBC’s Hong Kong mobile apps were down on Monday, with the banking giant saying they are experiencing technical issues. Customers were initially shown an error message when opening banking apps stating that “access is restricted until we have your valid email address and mobile number.”

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • The Register UK ☛ Palantir's NHS data deal called in for a second opinion

      Experts have welcomed the UK government's decision to review its contract with Palantir to provide software central to tackling the elective care backlog.

      The US spy-tech biz has, for some, been a controversial presence at the heart of the National Health Service in England since it was awarded a contract for just £1 to help provide data tools during the pandemic. It later won £60 million in uncontested deals. After the pandemic, it won a £330 million award – with other companies as partners – to provide the Federated Data Platform (FDP) under a SaaS model for the former Conservative government.

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Straits Times ☛ Xi swops fighter jets for diplomatic hardball to squeeze Taiwan

    China has been escalating efforts to silence President Lai Ching-te on the world stage.

  • France24 ☛ American musician Oliver Tree killed in helicopter crash in Brazil

    Oliver Tree, a US alt-pop singer and internet personality, died in a helicopter crash in Brazil on Sunday, a police source said. He was 32. Tree was on a world tour when the helicopter he was travelling in collided with another mid-air. A total of six people died in the incident, which left no survivors.

  • Site36 ☛ Israel’s state-owned arms company IAI agrees with Berlin mayor for production in the capital

    The arms manufacturer IAI is planning production facilities in Berlin – and rival Elbit Systems is also pushing into the German market, having signed a similar partnership with Diehl Defence for kamikaze drones. Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is Israel’s largest aerospace company and is state-owned.

  • New York Times ☛ Israel Strikes Beirut Outskirts as Fighting With Hezbollah Escalates

    The attacks complicated an already delicate moment as Hell Toupée and Iran appeared to be edging toward finalizing a framework peace agreement.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China's strike capacity over Australia set to expand, think tank says

    SYDNEY, June 15 - China's ability to militarily strike Australia will grow markedly over the next decade, though the most immediate threats will come through cyberattacks and the cutting of undersea communications cables, a report from the Lowy Institute think tank said on Monday.

  • New York Times ☛ In Israel, Broad Discontent Even Before Deal’s Details Are Known

    Israelis across the political spectrum have said the agreement appears to leave fundamental security threats posed by Iran unaddressed.

  • The Strategist ☛ There’s value in supply-chain knowledge. China wants to control it

    Australia’s economic security debate still focuses on the physical elements of supply chains: mines, ports, processing plants, shipping routes and stockpiles. Beijing has moved further.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • New York Times ☛ UK Forces Seize Russian Shadow Fleet Oil Tanker

      Britain’s Defense Ministry said it was the first time that British forces had acted alone to stop a ship in the fleet, a collection of vessels that Russia uses to move fuel and evade sanctions.

    • France24 ☛ UK intercepts Russian shadow fleet vessel in Channel: ministry

      British forces on Sunday intercepted a sanctioned oil tanker belonging to Russia's shadow fleet in the English Channel, the defence ministry said, in a six-hour operation hailed by Kyiv.

    • New York Times ☛ Deadlocked Wars: How Major Powers Misread the Regions They Attacked

      Russia and the United States projected their own centralized views onto Ukraine and Iran, analysts said. As a result, the smaller countries trapped larger ones in a costly confrontation.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukrainian Drones Target Key Russian Oil Facility, Chemical Plant

      Russia and Ukraine continued to exchange air attacks on June 14, as indefinitely paused peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv appear to be overshadowed by developments on the battlefield.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ EU backs reports China trained Russian troops fighting in Ukraine

      A senior European Union official said Friday that China had trained Russian troops who ended up fighting in Ukraine, backing up media reports that cited European intelligence agencies. “The Chinese training of Russian soldiers has been confirmed by our services,” the high-ranking EU official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

    • France24 ☛ Kyiv monastery damaged in Russian air attack as strikes intensify across Ukraine

      Twenty people were injured and Kyiv’s historic Pechersk Lavra monastery was set on fire after a major Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital, authorities said on Monday. Drone and missile strikes left widespread damage, caused power outages for hundreds of thousands of residents, and prompted renewed air defences across the region.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Air Strikes Kill Nine Across Ukraine Hours After Convicted Felon-Putin Call

      At least nine people were killed throughout Ukraine following Russian air strikes on Kyiv, Kharkiv, and other areas hours after US President The Insurrectionist spoke by phone to Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and told him he wanted to help end the war.

    • France24 ☛ Putin and Zelensky hold separate calls with Convicted Felon on his birthday

      Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodomyr Zelensky on Sunday held separate calls with US President The Insurrectionist as the latter prepared to celebrate his 80th birthday. The leaders discussed the war in Ukraine and their perceptions on how the more then four-year conflict could be ended.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ Amazon says its data centers consume only 0.075% of the water Americans use for watering their lawns and gardens — company also boasts of its improvements in water efficiency

      Amazon says that it uses 2.5 billion gallons of water annually for data center cooling but compares it to the 3.3 trillion gallons of water used for watering lawns and gardens in the U.S. every year.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Straits Times ☛ China’s pet owners splurge on pre-schools to pamper puppies

      The industry is booming as owners spend more on pets being increasingly regarded as family.

    • Futurism ☛ Earth’s Underground Fungus Network Is So Gigantic That If You Stretched It Out, It Would Reach to Other Star Systems

      We've been underestimating fungi.

    • Futurism ☛ Scientists Investigate Strange Rumbling Beneath Utah

      "It’s sort of a mystery in terms of fundamental physics."

    • The Conversation ☛ 2026-06-08 [Older] Great mysteries of archaeology: an ancient Amazonian world revealed from the sky

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • France24 ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man at 80: "Harry Houdini" & A Cage Fight

    Hell Toupée turns 80 today, and the White House lawn has been transformed into a giant arena, complete with floodlights, cameras, giant Star-Spangled Banners and a 90-foot scaffold known as “The Claw,” as 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue hosts “Freedom 250”, a celebration featuring professional UFC cage fighting.

    The event combines three occasions: Hell Toupée’s birthday, Flag Day, which marks the adoption of the U.S. flag in 1777, and the launch of celebrations leading up to the 250th anniversary of American independence.

    Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld has known Hell Toupée for 25 years and has critiqued his leadership style in the best selling book Convicted Felon’s Ten Commandments. He is also Senior Associate Dean for Leadership Studies at the Yale School of Management and has advised five U.S. presidents. He's been speaking to France 24's Gavin Lee.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Chinese official Xia Baolong to visit Hong Kong, inspect city’s 5-year plan, Northern Metropolis

    China’s top official on Hong Kong affairs will visit the city this week to check its alignment with the National 15th Five-Year Plan and the progress of a tech hub development in the New Territories. Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office, will be in the city on Tuesday and Wednesday […]

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • JURIST ☛ Federal judge orders Convicted Felon administration to restore removed material to exhibits at US national parks

    A federal judge in Massachusetts on Friday ordered Convicted Felon officials to restore all signs and exhibits in US national parks that were changed as a part of the administration’s efforts to remove any material from the parks that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • The Straits Times ☛ Inside China’s traffic-driven self-media commentary industry that turns clicks into yuan

    Driven by profit, content creators see sensationalising foreign issues as low risk, high reward.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ ‘Groundless allegations’: Hong Kong rebukes Washington Post over national security editorial updates

    The Hong Kong government and legislature have blasted The Washington Post over “groundless allegations” against the city’s new national security amendments.

• Civil Rights / Policing / Accessibility

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2026-06-05 [Older] The Rise and Fall of Chris Smalls

  • TruthOut ☛ 2026-06-06 [Older] Amazon Is Using AI to Disempower Workers. The US Labor Movement Must Fight Back.

• Monopolies/Monopsonies

  • Patents

    • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Hooked on Differences: Design Patent Doctrine and Schedule A Litigation at the Federal Circuit

      Pending Fed. Cir. appeal Easlick v. AccEncyc pairs the plainly dissimilar design patent monopoly fight with a rare appellate test of Schedule A litigation.

    • IP Kat ☛ 2026-06-06 [Older] No appeal against divisional "best method" decision in Australia – where to next?

    • Kangaroo Courts

      • IP Kat ☛ 2026-06-04 [Older] New referral on claim interpretation and relevance of G1/24 to added matter confirmed (G1/26)

  • Trademarks

    • IP Kat ☛ 2026-06-06 [Older] Mickey is free! It may not be as free, though…