Leftovers

• Variety ☛ Harry Potter Star Jessie Cave Says OnlyFans Saved Me

  Jessie Cave, the actor who portrayed Lavender Brown in three “Harry Potter” movies, appeared in a recent interview on the U.K. talk show “This Morning” and spoke openly about her decision to launch an OnlyFans last year to help get her out of debt. Her decision resulted in a “Potter” fan convention barring her from being included.

• Renewable Energy World ☛ The mobile technology undermining utility workflows, efficiency, and data quality

  Another key need for utilities is robust “offline” capabilities that enable work crews to do their job even when connectivity is poor. That means having all necessary data pre-loaded on the device and full support for Esri’s Utility Network data model and network tracing. It also means having the ability to create/capture new GIS features, work orders, asset geometry, as-built details, and more – all while offline – and then have it uploaded in a way that preserves data quality and trustworthiness once connectivity is available again. That eliminates so many of the inefficiencies and data quality problems discussed above.

• Wouter Groeneveld ☛ Deconstructing A 17th Century Letter

  Continuing the letter writing fever, I’ve been exploring the academic work called Letters As Loot by Gijsbert Rutten and Marijke J. van der Wal. It’s a treasure trove of information on how letters were written in the 17th and 18th century, based on a corpus of 50k letters that were captured by raiding ships between England and The Netherlands. These boats usually contained a bag full of letters headed to offshore family and friends but due to the raging Anglo-Dutch War (four of them between 1652 and 1784), many letters never made it to their destination.

  That’s frustrating for the reckless explorers waiting to hear something from their family back home (or the other way around). But at the same time, nearly four hundred years later, these lost letters are the only thing that help us shape our view of lower and middle-class Dutch letter writers, which is otherwise dominated by upper class male writing. I’d love to think that if the Belgian Post loses a letter I sent, it’ll turn up in a couple hundred years for researchers to marvel at. I’m pretty sure by then this website is long gone. Who says the [Internet] will still be alive? Or the planet, for that matter, judging by the extreme weather conditions…

• Mike Brock ☛ The Post-Ideological Pose

  Ideology is not a bad word. Ideology is what happens when human beings live together. I am, for instance, extremely ideological about the proposition that murder should be prohibited and punished. I hold this ideologically. I did not arrive at it through some neutral procedure of reasoning from natural facts; I arrived at it because I am a person raised inside a moral tradition that treats human life as valuable and treats the taking of it as a category of wrong that warrants collective response. Other people, in other traditions, have held other views. Sociopaths, whose brains are wired differently, sometimes hold no view at all. The universality of my position among the people I know is not evidence that the position is post-ideological; it is evidence that the ideology is widely shared.

  That a position is ideological does not make it wrong, and it does not make it undefendable. It just means that when one defends it, you are defending a specific normative commitment against other possible normative commitments, and the defense is going to require you to say what you think a person is and what you think a community is made up of and what you think we owe each other.

• James G ☛ HTML element letter count distribution

  After the discussion, I wrote a Python script to compute the string lengths of each HTML element. I used the list of HTML elements on the MDN website as my dataset. The MDN list includes some elements (like selectedcontent) that are not Baseline supported yet, but I included them anyway. I excluded deprecated elements.

• Far Out Magazine ☛ The weirdest album by The Residents

  Top of the list of The Residents’ list of things to do seems to be, always and forever, “do weird shit”. That is the part that I have time for. It’s always depressing when you hear a band’s absolutely baffling music, then look a little deeper and find some gormless chump named Kevin muttering something about “making music for himself and if anyone likes it, that’s a bonus”. There’s no shortage of ambition and creativity in what The Residents do, not just in the music but in every aspect of their being.

• Consequence ☛ The Residents Announce 2026 "Eskimo Live!" North American Tour Dates

  The tour will now begin on October 7th with a show in Chicago, followed by stops in cities like Buffalo, Toronto, New York, Boston, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Tuscon, and more. The tour will conclude on December 1st in San Diego; see the full list of The Residents’ tour dates below.

• Bridge Michigan ☛ Inside U-M's rare program to save ancient texts

  Michigan’s Papyrology Collection covers texts and documents from 1000 B.C.E. to 1000 C.E. No institution on this side of the world has more of them, the Ann Arbor school said, giving the researchers access to a vast collection of ancient papyri. There are portions of the Homer epics, “The Odyssey” and “The Iliad,” writings by the philosopher Epicurus and the oldest-known copy of the Epistles of Paul.

• The Conversation ☛ Aliens at 40: from wearable cameras to exoskeletons, here are the technologies the film predicted

  Director James Cameron’s acclaimed sci-fi movie Aliens turns 40 in August. It’s a sequel to Ridley Scott’s claustrophobic breakout hit Alien, made in 1979. Where the original featured one terrifying creature, Cameron’s movie features hundreds – and pits them against a squad of space marines.

  A host of intriguing technologies make an appearance, including interstellar travel, hypersleep (where humans are preserved in stasis for long space journeys) and terraforming (making other worlds liveable for humans).

  Some of the technologies in the film have already come to pass – or look likely to soon. But others were missed and some remain firmly in the realms of science fiction.

• Science / Mathematics / Computer Science

  • Harvard University ☛ Making the case for independent science — Harvard Gazette

    Albert-László Barabási, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School and distinguished university professor at Northeastern University, is a graduate of Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest and a visiting professor at the Central European University in Vienna. He recently penned an op-ed in the journal Science laying out a blueprint for how Magyar might proceed.

    We spoke to Barabási about his proposals for Hungary and how politics can undermine research. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

  • Hackaday ☛ PVC Pipe Turned DIY Digital Telescope

    The build is based around a 114 mm diameter mirror sourced from Amazon. It’s assembled inside a length of 5-inch PVC pipe of just under a meter to suit the 900 mm focal length of the concave reflector. 3D printed components are used to mount the mirror and control its position for proper focus and collimation. Traditionally, a reflector based telescope would use a mirror and eyepiece to provide a view to the user. However, [Makestreme] built this as a smart telescope, instead integrating a Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 at the focal point. It’s connected to a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, running off an 18650 lithium-ion cell and a 5 V boost module for portability. The Pi runs a Python script that hosts a small web server allowing access to the live camera feed along with controls for brightness, exposure, and gain. [Makestreme] then uses apps like SkyMap and SkEye to help aim the telescope at astronomical elements of interest.

  • John D Cook ☛ How would you know whether an ancient culture had zero?

    A few weeks ago I wrote about the number system used in labeling spreadsheet columns. Labels run from A through Z, then AA through AZ, etc. This looks a lot like base 26, but it’s not quite the same. It has no analog of zero. If Z were like zero, Y would be followed by AZ. The Excel labeling system is not base 26, but what’s called bijective base 26.

  • Medievalists.net ☛ From Arab Silver to Byzantine Gold: The Vikings in the East

    The first journeys of the inhabitants of modern-day Scandinavia across the Baltic Sea to the east, or austr, as it sounded in their language, undoubtedly took place as early as the pre-Viking era, meaning during the 6th to 8th centuries. The starting point for these expeditions into the territories of today’s Baltic states and Poland—inhabited by Balts and Slavs and mentioned in Norse sagas (e.g., the Ynglinga saga)—was primarily the region of modern-day central Sweden. The motives for these overseas expeditions, which could be commercial but also predatory, were furs and amber.

  • Science Alert ☛ The Biggest Known Galaxy Is 1.7 Million Light-Years, And We Can't Comprehend The Scale

    Literally huge.

  • Science Alert ☛ Hidden Structures in Clouds May Solve a Longstanding Mystery About Rainfall

    Precipitation is an enigma.

  • Science Alert ☛ New Evidence Challenges What Experts Said About Working From Home

    What if they had this wrong?

    As the recent global pandemic waned – and the urgent need for widespread remote work began to fade into history – a new view started to emerge.

    It suggested remote work wasn't as effective as being in the office, that it hinders collaboration, and that remote workers experience increased feelings of isolation and worsened mental health.

    But what if we've got this the wrong way around?

    In a new study published in Frontiers in Psychology, researchers analyzed survey data from more than 7,700 employees at a large healthcare organization in the Southwestern US.

  • Science Alert ☛ A Single Blood Sample May Reveal The Biological Age of Each of Your Organs

    Yikes.

• Career/Education

  • Chronicle Of Higher Education ☛ The University That Answers to the U.S. President

    Public funding has tumbled. Governance is in crisis. And who's really in charge is up for debate.

  • Chronicle Of Higher Education ☛ Education Department Takes First Step to Revoke Recognition of Law-Schools Accreditor

    Even if the American Bar Association prevails, the initial recommendation could be a significant reputational blow.

  • Futurism ☛ Cop Used Electrocution Gloves to Subdue High School Student in Special Education Program

    "We are constantly seeking ways to keep the public and police officers safe through innovations like G.L.O.V.E."

  • New Yorker ☛ Get a Tech Job, Babies!

    The puzzling rise in high-level science books for infants and toddlers.

  • Mere Civilian ☛ MereCivilian's Financial Position 2025

    Please do not let the amounts discourage you or encourage you. It's just a bunch of numbers. I know people who have a lot more than I do and are not happy, and others who have a lot less than I do and are happier.

  • Devon Dundee ☛ Saying Goodbye to MacStories

    The full explanation is this: I left my position at MacStories yesterday, and writing this is my way of letting you know about that decision and – with any luck – processing it a bit myself. So bear with me.

• Hardware

  • One month with my new Murena GS6 Pro: finally a Murena phone that checks all my boxes

    Recently I decided to change my Murena smartphone because its battery was really dying: I had to recharge several times a day and it was becoming problematic when travelling for business. Unfortunately this model didn’t have a replaceable battery, so it was difficult to change.

  • CNX Software ☛ AAEON uCOM-Q6490 – A SMARC 2.1-compliant SoM powered by Qualcomm Dragonwing QCS6490 SoC

    AAEON uCOM-Q6490 is a SMARC 2.1-compliant System-on-Module (SoM) built around the Qualcomm Dragonwing QCS6490 octa-core SoC, designed for robotics, healthcare, industrial automation, and digital signage applications. The 82 × 50 mm module ships with up to 16GB LPDDR5 memory and 64GB UFS storage, and its standard MXM 3.0 edge connector exposes SDIO 3.0, PCIe 3.0, dual GbE, USB 3.1, and USB 2.0 interfaces, along with UARTs, SPI, I2C, I2S, GPIOs, and a DisplayPort 1.4 output supporting 2K at 60Hz.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • JURIST ☛ Meta disputes claims of deliberately addicting minors as landmark social control media trial begins

    A bellwether federal trial began on Tuesday testing whether Meta can be held liable for designing its platforms, Facebook (Farcebook) and Instagram, to addict youth users. The case, In re: Social Media Adolscent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Litigation, is a consolidated multi-district litigation (MDL) under 28 USC 1407.

  • New York Times ☛ Rare South American Diseases Offer Clues on the Next Pandemic

    Ebola virus, hantavirus and the pathogen that causes Covid-19 likely jumped from animals to humans. So do these viruses — and scientists say climate change is speeding their spread.

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ Blood test can find cancers, save Michigan lives. Is that worth $100B?

    The Galleri blood test and others like it could revolutionize cancer care but add billions in costs each year to the US health system.

  • France24 ☛ Millions in Cuba face water shortages as oil crisis deepens

    In Cuba, seven months of an effective oil blockade imposed by the Convicted Felon administration has not only increased power outages but is also leaving more and more people without running water. In August 2025, 2.6 million people on the Caribbean island nation had difficulty accessing water, according to the Cuban Institute of Hydraulic Resources. Today, that figure has risen to 3.5 million – around a third of the population. FRANCE 24’s Ed Augustin reports on the health risks rippling through the island.

  • Futurism ☛ We Are Admittedly Creeped Out by These Chunks of Human Brain Matter That Have Lived Longer Than a Toddler

    Apart from being creepy, they serve an important purpose.

  • Futurism ☛ Wild New Paper Claims Human Brain Doesn’t Produce Consciousness

    "Nothing in science explains how three pounds of matter... can love, hate, dream, imagine, fear or hope for its future."

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia urges ASEAN nations to act as haze pushes pollution readings to unhealthy levels

    Malaysia said it remained committed to the regional goal of achieving a haze-free ASEAN by 2030.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Dengue cases spike in Malaysia, with 55 deaths so far in 2026

    Malaysia's Health Ministry said the increase in cases was influenced by several factors, including the weather.

  • Science Alert ☛ America's First Legal Psilocybin Program Treated 346 People. Here's What Happened.

    "This paper is going to be cited for decades."

  • Science Alert ☛ Brain Scans Reveal a Striking Similarity Between Schizophrenia And Bipolar Disorder

    The boundary between them is not always clear.

  • Science Alert ☛ Huge US Study Shows Living Near Dry Cleaners Is Linked to Major Disease Risk

    Where you live matters.

  • Science Alert ☛ There's a Link Between Women's Reproductive Health And Heart Disease Doctors Say We're Missing

    Menopause may need to come with a heart check up.

  • Lou Plummer ☛ Legendary Meals from the 70s

    Flash forward a couple of decades, and now I'm the parent trying to stretch the grocery budget. For a time, my whole family didn't eat meat at home. I was the family cook, and this made constructing filling dinners more complicated than I liked. One dish I made frequently involved mixing black beans, corn, lettuce, cheese and seasonings with a bottle of Catalina salad dressing. I didn't dare call it taco salad because of the missing meat, so I christened it bean mixture, and I have never heard the end of it.

• Proprietary / Vendor Lock-in / Malware

  • Digital Music News ☛ Apple Quietly Raises Fashion Company Apple Music-Bundled One Family and Premier Pricing

    As Fashion Company Apple Music subscriptions increasingly come from bundled offerings, Fashion Company Apple quietly raises the prices of its Fashion Company Apple One Family and Premier bundled tiers. Fashion Company Apple Music just saw a price increase last month, and now, two Fashion Company Apple One bundled plans are receiving price increases worldwide.

  • India Today ☛ I am sole earner: Microsoft lays off employee in Hyderabad, saying you are too young

    A Microsoft software engineer in Hyderabad has turned to Reddit for help finding a new job after losing his position in the company's latest round of layoffs. The employee, who has around three years of experience, said his manager told him during the layoff call that he was relatively young and was assumed to have fewer responsibilities.

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

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ Florida seeks court ruling to officially classify Scam Altman and Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot as a 'public nuisance' — Proprietary Chaffbot Company fights to keep lawsuit away from a state jury

      Florida's lawsuit against Proprietary Chaffbot Company and Scam Altman has now been sitting before U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Fort Pierce for seven weeks.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • The Straits Times ☛ India orders removal of Surveillance Giant Google Firebase accounts after spotting scam pattern

      There was no suggestion in the notices that Surveillance Giant Google or Firebase were in any way responsible.

    • JURIST ☛ Amnesty International decries Argentina’s expanding Hey Hi (AI) surveillance as tool of social control

      Amnesty International on Wednesday accused Argentina of building techno-authoritarian surveillance infrastructure without adequate legal safeguards as the government’s newly created Hey Hi (AI) security unit expands state monitoring powers over citizens’ online communications and physical movements. 

    • Futurism ☛ Grand Jury Declines to Indict Man Caught on Camera Destroying Flock Pole

      "Any good prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich."

  • Confidentiality

    • New York Times ☛ Prince Harry, Elton John and Others Told to Pay Daily Mail Publisher $13 Million

      Harry and six other high-profile figures lost a privacy lawsuit against Associated Newspapers. They may eventually have to pay more than twice the initial sum, a judge said.

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Straits Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man wants a new meeting with Kim Jong Un. North Korea says not so fast

    U.S. President The Insurrectionist says he wants to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year. But his overtures have drawn a frosty response from Pyongyang, suggesting it will set tough conditions to hold such a meeting even if the two men have an "excellent" relationship.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Former airline pilot in South Korea gets life for murder, plot to kill 5 others

    He followed his targets and attached tracking devices to their vehicles to survey their routines.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ Lawmakers seek watchdog review of federal hacking of Americans

    Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Greg Casar want a GAO probe on the government’s use of spyware and other sophisticated hacking tools and authorities.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Wang Yi’s Seoul visit comes amid potential opening for Korean peace talks

    US President The Insurrectionist is seeking to revive his personal diplomacy with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

  • The Straits Times ☛ US-South Korea drills end early after Convicted Felon orders, Seoul says

    The exercises were originally scheduled to last until Aug 27.

  • The Straits Times ☛ How one TV interview left Malaysia PM Anwar walking a tightrope between Beijing and Taipei

    He later stressed that Malaysia respected China’s position but favoured a peaceful resolution on Taiwan.

  • The Straits Times ☛ US Navy aircraft transits Taiwan Strait before planned Xi-Dihydroxyacetone Man meeting

    US military ships or aircraft every few months pass through or above the waterway that separates Taiwan from China.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Latvia ☛ New migrant tunnel discovered on Latvia-Belarus border

      Latvian border guards said on August 21st they have uncovered another tunnel on the Latvia-Belarus border and arrested a large number of illegal crossers in the process.

    • New York Times ☛ Germany Identifies a Plot After Finding a Weapons Cache, but Names No Culprit

      Officials were careful not to point a finger, after revealing what they said was a plan for a political attack, at a time when a series of destabilizing actions have been blamed on Russia.

    • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Is Breaking the Law to Cover Up How Russia Helped Him Win in 2024

      By law, Convicted Felon is supposed to reveal all the ways Russia helped him win the 2024 election. Thus far, he is refusing to do so.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Myanmar military using force to clear land for Russia-backed port project: Resistance groups

      The offensive is around the Dawei SEZ, which includes a planned deep-sea port and power plant on the Andaman Sea.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian transport minister removes airport board member over Russia links

      Lithuania's Transport Minister, Juras Taminskas, has removed Oleksandras Laneckis from the board of Lithuanian Airports, following public concern over his alleged ties to Russia and Belarus, as well as contacts with pro-Russian media.

    • France24 ☛ Russian strikes in Ukraine kill at least two people, injure several others

      At least two people were reported dead early Saturday by local authorities, after Russian strikes on Ukraine. The strikes came after a series of Russian bombings killed at least 20 people in Ukraine on Friday, including 16 in a daytime drone attack on a busy shopping center in President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown Kryvyi Rih.

    • New York Times ☛ At 77, She Walked 9 Miles Under Drone-Filled Skies to Escape From ‘Hell’

      Rescue teams no longer enter the city of Lyman, in eastern Ukraine, because it is deemed too dangerous. The only way out is a terrifying journey on foot.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Australia charges man with trying to pass Ukraine military intel to Russia

      The 27-year-old Russian-Australian citizen had “military style” training in Russia and later joined the Ukrainian armed forces.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Russian-Australian to appear in court charged with spying on Ukraine military

      A dual Russian-Australian citizen is set to appear in court on Friday after being charged with foreign interference, for trying to give Ukrainian military information to people he believed were linked to Russian intelligence.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Japan protests Russian missile tests off disputed islands

      Ties between Japan and Russia have worsened since the full-scale conflict in Ukraine began in 2022.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Drone Attack Hits Ukrainian Shopping Mall, Killing Or Injuring More Than 100

      A Russian drone attack on a shopping mall in the south-central city of Kryviy Rih killed at least six people and left about 100 others injured, including several children, Ukrainian authorities said.

    • LRT ☛ Generators, queues and deserted beaches: life in occupied Crimea today

      Empty shop shelves, the hum of generators, beaches devoid of tourists, queues and scuffles at petrol stations, air raid sirens and explosions – this has been life in occupied Crimea since the end of June, when the Ukrainian Defence Forces launched an operation to compel Russia to make peace. At the same time, for the Russian audience, the occupying authorities are trying to paint a different picture – one of enterprises operating smoothly, support for business and a willingness to help the population.

    • JURIST ☛ UN humanitarian chief warns increased drone use against civilians threatens Ukraine humanitarian response

      UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher on Wednesday warned that the recent rise in the usage of drones posed a dangerous risk for aid operations, emphasizing that international humanitarian law, which prohibits attacks on humanitarian workers and civilians, continues to apply to drone warfare regardless of how sophisticated or remote the weapons become.

    • France24 ☛ Deadly 'double-tap' Russian drone strikes target Ukraine shopping centre

      A pair of Russian drone strikes that hit a shopping centre in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih Friday killed at least 15 people and wounded scores more, authorities said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of targeting emergency workers in what's known as a "double-tap" strike, with the second drone reportedly striking the mall half an hour after the first.

    • Latvia ☛ LSM's charity drive for Ukrainian soldiers continues

      To raise funds for medical and psychological support for Ukrainian soldiers, Latvian Public Media (LSM), in collaboration with the charity organisation ‘ziedot.lv’, is continuing its fundraising campaign ‘In thought and deed, together with Ukraine!’. So far, 30,368 euros have been raised.

    • France24 ☛ Does Putin travel without security?

      In order to create an image of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a leader beloved by his people, pro-Russia social control media users have been claiming that he travels without a security team, unlike other heads of state. To illustrate this claim, they shared a video of his latest trip to Siberia. The footage, however, shows him with a large security contingent.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea budget airlines Jin Air, Air Busan, Air Seoul to merge into single carrier by March 2027

      Once the merger closes, the combined carrier will become South Korea’s largest low-cost carrier by fleet size.

    • The Straits Times ☛ China launches biggest-ever car recall campaign over door handle safety

      It addresses concerns that concealed door handles are difficult to locate or operate in emergencies.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Explainer: What we know about the door handles that triggered China’s record auto recall

      The current design of some door handles make it to escape a vehicle in a life-threatening situation.

    • New York Times ☛ In China’s Biggest Car Recall, Tesla and 8 Others Will Address Door Safety

      China’s regulator ordered changes after vehicle occupants sometimes had difficulty exiting electric cars, an issue that has led to lawsuits against Tesla in the United States.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Tesla and others begin record vehicle recall in China

      A total of about 4.3 million vehicles are being recalled in China.

    • Futurism ☛ Leaked Memo Shows Republicans Are Terrified of the Backlash Against Hey Hi (AI) Data Centers

      "This has become a sleeper issue for the entire election cycle."

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong woman, 33, dies after being mauled by dog at Ta Kwu Ling animal shelter

      A Hong Kong woman was found dead at a licensed animal shelter in Ta Kwu Ling on Thursday after she was mauled by a dog, adding to a string of attacks this week involving canines.

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ Hyundai Motor’s union stages first full strike in 10 years over wage talks

    It illustrates the growing labour unrest following the election of President Lee Jae Myung in 2025.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Following Layoffs, Patreon Previews 30 New Tools for Discovery, Community, Video, Safety, and More [Ed: Entrust or outsource your finance to a company that cannot properly manage its own finances?]

    Patreon announces 30 new features coming to the platform, designed to address the “failure” of the current internet for creators and fans alike. The news follows mass layoffs at the company last month.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • New York Times ☛ Judge Strikes Down Convicted Felon’s 75-Country Visa Ban

    The ruling from the Southern District of New York found that the policy went beyond Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s legal authority.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Threatens Defamation Suit Over National Guard Report, Aiming to Intimidate a Critic

    It was the latest example of Hell Toupée’s bid to use the legal system against those who voice unflattering facts and opinions generally protected by the First Amendment.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Conviction of Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil activists draws approval from gov’t, concern from overseas human rights groups

    The conviction of two pro-democracy figures who organised Hong Kong’s Tiananmen vigils has prompted wide approval from government officials. Activists and overseas human rights groups, however, have expressed concern about what they see as declining freedoms in the city.

  • JURIST ☛ Hong Kong court finds Tiananmen crackdown commemorators guilty of subversion

    The Hong Kong Court of First Instance on Friday found Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan and their now-disbanded organization, the Hong Kong Alliance, guilty of a national security offense under the Beijing-imposed National Security Law (NSL).

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil activists convicted under nat. security law, face up to 10 years in prison

    Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil activists Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan have been convicted of incitement to subversion under a Beijing-imposed national security law.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Federal News Network ☛ Pentagon dismisses Stars and Stripes leadership after editor, reporter oppose military interference

    Slavin said he was dismissed for insubordination after an interview he gave that objected to potential censorship by the U.S. military.

• Civil Rights / Policing / Accessibility

  • JURIST ☛ US appeals court affirms injunction blocking immigration enforcement at houses of worship

    The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a preliminary injunction Tuesday barring the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from conducting immigration enforcement actions at or near Quaker, Sikh and Baptist houses of worship that sued the Convicted Felon administration over the policy permitting them.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • APNIC ☛ APNIC 62 OPM: Just the facts

    The APNIC 62 Open Policy Meeting will consider a diverse set of policy proposals covering IPv4 management, IPv6 allocation practices, and Internet abuse handling.

  • It's FOSS ☛ Proton Mail Wants to Organize Your Emails Automatically [Ed: It's Not FOSS]

    The feature sorts mail into six categories using metadata alone, and full-content search is coming to mobile next.

• Monopolies/Monopsonies

  • Patents

    • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Right vs. Remedy: No Standing to Challenge the Patent Cover’s ‘Right to Exclude’ Promise

      The Federal Circuit holds inventor groups lack standing to challenge the patent monopoly cover's "right to exclude" language as misleading after eBay.

    • Unified Patents ☛ $3,000 awarded for Cloud-Native Heroes Challenge - prior art found on Valtrus '538

      Unified Patents and Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) are pleased to announce the winning prior art submissions in the Cloud Native Heroes Challenge, a patent monopoly troll bounty program. The results of this contest demonstrate the benefits of engaging open source developers and technologists with domain expertise in the fight against patent monopoly trolls.

    • Kangaroo Courts

      • JUVE ☛ UPC Court of Appeal puts an end to the egg packaging dispute [Ed: UPC is illegal and unconstitutional]

        Danish packaging manufacturer Hartmann Packaging and its German competitor Omni-pac have been in dispute over EP 2 755 901 at the Unified Patent Court for more than two years.

  • Trademarks

    • Digital Music News ☛ Lady Gaga Triumphs in ‘Mayhem’ Trademark Lawsuit in Big First Amendment Win

      Lady Gaga has defeated a trademark infringement suit filed by a surfboard brand, as a judge dismisses the case, citing insufficient evidence. On Tuesday, a judge dismissed the trademark infringement lawsuit filed against Lady Gaga by a surfboard brand over her Mayhem album title and accompanying logo.

  • Copyrights

    • Digital Music News ☛ Sony Music and Designer Shoe Warehouse Reach Preliminary Settlement in Contentious Social Media Infringement Battle

      Just like that, the Sony Music v. Designer Shoe Warehouse (DSW) social control media infringement battle has drawn to an abrupt close – though the footwear retailer’s wider copyright monopoly clash with the majors isn’t quite finished.

    • Digital Music News ☛ As UGC Lawsuits Rage, Epidemic Sound Offers a Strikingly Different Licensing Approach

      Shake a stick in this business, and you’ll quickly find a contentious lawsuit involving social control media music licensing. Great for the lawyers, as they say, but is there a better way?  Sadly, that’s a critical question for a growing number of major brands.

    • Digital Music News ☛ Jay-Z’s Aggressive Defamation Suit Against a Sexual Assault Accuser Is In Serious Trouble

      Jay-Z’s efforts to appeal the dismissal of his defamation suit against attorney Tony Buzbee are met with a skeptical appeals court.

    • Digital Music News ☛ Bad Bunny Spent Nearly $500,000 Fending Off the ‘Enséñame Bailar’ Copyright Lawsuit, Court Filings Reveal

      After beating a seemingly frivolous copyright monopoly lawsuit, Bad Bunny is stuck covering his own legal costs to the tune of nearly half a million dollars. Lo siento, Bad Bunny!