Leftovers

• Science / Mathematics / Computer Science

  • New York Times ☛ Scientists Discover the Earliest Evidence of Drug Use in Really Old Teeth

    A hunter-gatherer who lived in Indonesia as early as 25,000 years ago may have regularly sucked on betel nuts to release their psychoactive properties.

  • Science Alert ☛ NASA Found Strange Holes on Mars. Scientists Aren't Sure What Made Them.

    DRR…DRR…DRR

  • Science Alert ☛ US Neurologists Issue New Guidelines on How to Prevent Migraines

    "There are many options."

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Reveal What Happens When You Switch From a Low-Carb to a High-Carb Diet

    This is important to know.

  • Science Alert ☛ Giant Study Unravels The Links Between Meat Consumption And Stomach Cancer

    Just 30 grams more processed meat a day significantly raises stomach cancer risk.

  • Science Alert ☛ Belly Fat, Not Age, May Be The Bigger Driver of Low Testosterone

    It's not inevitable.

  • Science Alert ☛ Alzheimer's Disease Threat Actually Emerges From Beyond The Brain, Study Finds

    We need to take a wider view.

  • Science Alert ☛ Your Body Keeps Producing Cannabis-Like Chemicals Throughout a Marathon

    Wait, your body can do that?

  • Trail of Bits ☛ A “proof” of Fermat’s Last Theorem that fits the margin

    Fermat famously claimed to have a “truly marvelous proof” of his Last Theorem, but he never wrote it down, insisting the margin of his page was too narrow to contain it. A few centuries later, Anthropic announced a complete formalization of Fermat’s Last Theorem using 13 million lines of Lean code (clearly not what Fermat intended). Luckily, we found a wonderfully cursed Lean bug, shown below, that suggests the proof may have fit the margin after all. The issue affects all stable versions of Lean up to 4.33.1, and the patch is incorporated in v4.34.0-rc1.

• Hardware

  • Ruben Schade ☛ A hard drive as a table

    There were a couple of fascinating gents at the coffee shop yesterday. One of them used to work at HP in Australia, and he ended up collecting a lot of scrap hardware. His crowning achievement was taking home an early hard drive and using it as a table, which should give you a sense of scale. He lamented that the platters were removed and destroyed, but it still had the chassis and a massive transformer.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Latvia ☛ Baltic states still a suicide blackspot

    The Baltic states are among the places in Europe with the highest number of suicides per head of population, according to Eurostat figures published on September 9th.

• Proprietary / Vendor Lock-in / Malware

  • It's FOSS ☛ Broadcom Kills Public VDDK Access to Tighten its Grip on VMware

    Existing copies still work; getting a fresh one is another matter. They seem to have "forgotten" to announce this.

  • Septabee: A FREE, unique, and sometimes bewildering DAW for Windows and Linux

    Unlike anything you’ve seen before, Septabee is a free DAW for Windows and Linux.

    Even though well-established software like Tracktion’s Waveform Free often dominates the free DAW conversation, more options keep popping up constantly.

    Check out our top free DAWs; there’s something to suit everyone, whether you’re a complete beginner or looking for a professional feature set.

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

    • Press Gazette ☛ Reuters replaces Getty as agency partner for 70-year ITN news archive

      Reuters using digitisation and Hey Hi (AI) tools to enhance access to ITN footage.

    • Futurism ☛ Man Announces That He Has Synthesized a New Schizophrenia Treatment in His Garage, Based on a Formula Devised by ChatGPT

      "Hello schizophrenic, take this medicine that chatgpt made for you."

    • David Revoy ☛ AI Overused Expressions

    • The Straits Times ☛ China’s WeChat makes fix after US firm shows Hey Hi (AI) hack risk

      The US company, Calif, describes itself as a team of hackers aiming to “make the internet safer for everybody”.

  • Social Control Media

    • Futurism ☛ Facebook Is Hosting Huge Numbers of Horrifying AI-Generated Videos of Violent Child Abuse, and Meta Is Barely Even Pretending to Care About Taking Them Down

      Facebook is filled with AI-generated videos of children being beaten, burned, and bludgeoned with heavy objects. Meta doesn't seem to care.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • New Yorker ☛ Flock Wants a Closely Surveilled World with No Exit

      The company, which has a hundred and thirty thousand cameras monitoring the streets of the U.S., frames privacy as a worthwhile trade-off for safety and security, echoing the language of the post-9/11 surveillance boom.

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ LG strongly denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true' — online investigation claims 216,000,000 TVs spy and record audio

      LG has strongly denied recent security and privacy concerns raised regarding its smart TVs.

    • NYOB ☛ Open Letter: Civil society coalition urges EU to kill the cookie banner!

      GDPR Policy

      For once, EU legislators have an opportunity to deliver genuine simplification for people: a solution to the ongoing issue of misleading cookie banners. As part of its highly controversial Digital Omnibus package, the EU Commission has proposed legally binding automated privacy signals. These would allow you to set your privacy preferences once, and very rarely see another banner. Unfortunately, the tracking industry is pushing back. Therefore, a coalition of currently

  • Confidentiality

    • Bruce Schneier ☛ Driver’s License Data for Sale

      A database of 153 million drivers licenses is for sale on the dark web. Brian Krebs has more detail.

• Defence/Aggression

  • New York Times ☛ Election Officials Grapple With Uncertainty as Supreme Court Considers Mail Ballot Plan

    As they wait for word on whether the Convicted Felon administration’s new system to screen ballots can move forward, local officials say they are running out of time.

  • Federal News Network ☛ The Pentagon is collecting more information about the effects of blast exposure

    "The department really has had to change the way it is thinking and its approach to brain health effects from blast over pressure," said Alyssa Hundrup.

  • The Straits Times ☛ North Korea nears completion of bridge with China, analytics firm says

    North Korea is completing work on its section of the long-stalled New Yalu River bridge with China, suggesting an imminent opening after more than a decade of delays, a South Korean analytics firm said on Wednesday.

  • The Straits Times ☛ North Korea builds new Yongbyon uranium enrichment facility, IAEA says

    IAEA said the expansion of North Korea's weapons-grade nuclear material is deeply concerning.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Protesters urge South Korea to stay out of Iran war

    The protest came after the authorities announced a fact-finding mission in Hormuz.

  • The Straits Times ☛ How a billion-dollar sanctions dodge kept Chinese goods flowing to Iran

    Iran has used a barter-like arrangement to bypass sanctions on its oil sales and buy billions of dollars’ worth of goods from China, including military gear, two senior Iranian sources and three other people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Mao Zedong, Cultural Revolution cast long shadow over China 50 years on

    Mao's death on Sept 9, 1976 was mourned by many and welcomed by some who suffered under his nearly three-decade rule.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ ‘Long live Chairman Mao’: Supporters pay respects to founder of Communist China

    Fifty years after his death, diehard fans of the Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong lined up Wednesday in his hometown to pay homage, holding portraits, flags and huge floral tributes.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong political leaders and grandees pay tribute to ‘visionary’ leader Tung Chee-hwa

    Hong Kong leader John Lee has joined a chorus of senior politicians and local grandees paying tribute to Tung Chee-hwa, the city’s first leader after its 1997 handover to China.

  • France24 ☛ Aid cuts force clinic closures across Sudan

    In tonight's edition, funding cuts are forcing dozens of health clinics in Sudan to close, aid groups warn. Also, an Hey Hi (AI) and Africa conference has kicked off in South Korea's capital. And we have a poke around the Rwanda Space Agency as Paris hosts its very first international space summit.

  • New York Times ☛ Spain Declassifies Warning to Morocco About Migrant Crossing Plans

    Spain’s intelligence service had alerted Morocco about social control media calls for a border exodus into Ceuta, which led to more than 100 deaths and a political crisis in Spain.

  • France24 ☛ EU gives Spain 115 mn euros aid over Ceuta crisis

    The EU on Wednesday said it was granting Spain 115 million euros ($130 million) in emergency aid to help bolster border security and assist returns after the massive migrant rush into the north African exclave. More than 70,000 migrants crossed into Spanish territory from Morocco on July 30 and 31 in an unprecedented rush that left scores dead, most by drowning as they tried to swim around a breakwater. FRANCE 24's Sarah Morris reports from Madrid.

  • Federal News Network ☛ What is defending our warfighters actually worth?

    Stacy Bostjanick, a former DoD executive and Tara Lemieux, an Army veteran, electronic warfare signals intelligence officer, explain why CMMC needs to continue.

  • France24 ☛ NY failed to disclose what it knew on 'toxic air' after 9/11

    New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on Tuesday the release of tens of thousands of documents showing the city did not disclose all it knew about air toxicity after 9/11. The release comes ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks that killed 2,977 people in the United States, mostly in the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York. In the years since, more than 9,400 have died from illnesses linked to their exposure to the area, according to a federal medical monitoring program.

  • France24 ☛ France's far-right National Rally fires policeman from security team over racist, sexist comments

    France's far-right National Rally (RN) has expelled a policeman from its ranks after bodycam footage of him making racist, homophobic and sexist remarks was published on Wednesday. The controversy threatens to revive scrutiny of the party's efforts to distance itself from its extremist past ahead of next year's presidential election.

  • New York Times ☛ U.S. Takes Aim at New Target in Deadly Boat Strike Campaign

    U.S. military officials in the past two weeks have sunk six large fishing vessels accused of providing fuel to fast boats carrying drugs from South America.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Pakistan warns Iran to rein in Houthis as Riyadh strikes back

    ANKARA, Sept 9 - Pakistan has delivered a Saudi warning to Iran to rein in its Yemeni Houthi allies after they stepped up attacks on the kingdom, in a coordinated effort to prevent the crisis from spiralling, Saudi, Pakistani and Iranian sources said.

  • RFERL ☛ US, Iran Trade Strikes On Shipping As Oil Prices Surge Above $100 A Barrel

    Iran said it attacked vessels near the Strait of Hormuz on September 9 after the United States destroyed several Iranian oil tankers overnight, in a sharp escalation in the six-month war.

  • France24 ☛ Iran and US strike tankers in biggest shipping attack since war began

    Iran and the US on Wednesday traded their biggest wave of attacks on shipping since the war began, with Iran saying it struck 10 vessels near the Strait of Hormuz after US forces sank five Iranian oil tankers. Brent crude oil surged above $100 a barrel as fears grew over global energy supplies.

  • France24 ☛ Iran strikes ships, expands no-go zone outside Hormuz strait

    Iran said it attacked more than a dozen vessels trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, as it announced an expansion of a no-go zone outside the strategic waterway it has blockaded for months. The fresh attacks and fighting with the United States have sent oil prices above $100 per barrel again as Tehran chokes off the strait and Washington presses a counter-blockade of Iranian ports. FRANCE 24's Reza Sayah reports from Tehran.

  • Site36 ☛ Frontex now stations ship and surveillance vehicles in English Channel – and still tolerates pushbacks in the Aegean

    Frontex is expanding its presence along the French coast as crossings of the English Channel remain high. At the same time, the agency is under renewed scrutiny over an incident near the Greek island of Ikaria in which 27 people were reportedly returned to Turkish waters.

  • France24 ☛ Whose space is it? Europe scrambles as US rules satellite race

    With the digital age comes the scramble for minerals below us and the scramble to master the heavens above us. The Insurrectionist wants a thousand rocket launches a year and with SpaceX’s reusable modules leading the way, the United States towers over the competition. It’s why for instance Ukraine’s president has to beg MElon to use his Starlink low orbit satellite system to take out the Russian cruise missile launchers.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • NYPost ☛ Drone nearly strikes Zelensky’s plane before takeoff for Norwegian king’s funeral, PM says

      A plane carrying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Norway for the king’s state funeral was "almost hit" by a drone as it prepared to take off from Moldova on Tuesday

    • Latvia ☛ Is stolen grain from Ukraine beng shipped via Latvia?

      If the checks reveal that the relevant grains do come from Ukraine, a month will have passed and the specific cargo will have already moved on in transit. However, the PVD will have information about the carrier and the origin of the grains. "This will be a reason for making other decisions in the future at the European Union level," said Balodis.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian MPs meet Chinese diplomats in Brussels to discuss ties

      Two Lithuanian lawmakers met with Chinese diplomats in Brussels to discuss ways of improving relations between Lithuania and China, drawing criticism from some members of the European Parliament.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Strikes Hit Ukraine, Border Crossing Near Moldova

      A Russian drone attack targeted a border crossing between Ukraine and Moldova, killing two people and injuring three others, while another drone struck a residential building in Kyiv, as Moscow continues its campaign of near-continuous strikes across Ukraine.

    • The Straits Times ☛ North Korea’s Kim thanks troops on overseas operations on founding anniversary

      North Korea has sent an estimated 15,000 troops to fight alongside Russian forces since late 2024.

    • New York Times ☛ Ukraine’s Unexpected $27 Billion Budget Gap Rattles Europe

      An unexpected request from President Volodymyr Zelensky offered a stark reminder that the cost of the war will rise, challenging Europe.

• Environment

  • The Straits Times ☛ Nepal floods aftermath through the lens of Reuters photographers

    The photos tell a story of lives, interrupted.

  • Green Party UK ☛ Polanski sounds the alarm over national security threat from nature collapse

    Polanski sounds the alarm over national security threat from nature collapse  In a speech to the Wild Summit today, Zack Polanski will sound the alarm over the threats to the UK’s economy and national security from the collapse of nature and ecosystems. 

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • New York Times ☛ Fighting Wildfire Haze With an Airplane and Lots of Salt and Water

      The authorities in Malaysian Borneo have been trying to seed clouds to counteract the effects of smoke wafting in from neighboring Indonesia.

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ ‘People came here dreaming of riches’: Inside the Nanning condo said to be part of a pyramid scheme

    Recruiters use familiar faces and food to draw Singaporeans into the illegal scheme in China's Guangxi region.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • New York Times ☛ Thousands Gather for Funeral of Norway’s King Harald

    Royal families and heads of state, including President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, attended the funeral of King Harald V in Oslo.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • New Yorker ☛ The Right’s Crusade to “Make America Hot Again”

    After years of championing modesty and purity, conservatives are embracing a new cause: cleavage.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Press Gazette ☛ IB Times freelance reporter earns $2.62 for 782-word article

    London newsroom faces criticism over freelance rates and unpaid internships.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Journalism job cuts in 2026 tracked: Latest from Channel 4, CNBC, USA Today Co, Vox

  • Press Gazette ☛ Washington Post ‘on track to break even’ after four years of losses

    [Ed: Bezos propaganda outlet. The term ‘on track to break even’ means "we are still losing money, but our Master Bezos uses us to make himself richer and revered".]

    Newly-confirmed permanent CEO Jeff D'Onofrio eyes new revenue streams to reach profitability.

• Civil Rights / Policing / Accessibility

  • Dedoimedo ☛ Tame Firefox UI ergonomics with a non-default Mozilla them

    A few days ago, boom, another Firefox, this time 153 (and by now, 155). And once again, they changed the class and id declarations ever so slightly. Urlbar this, urlbar that, so annoying and inconsistent. Disheartening, and also a waste of time. If I want a normal look and feel, editing the defaults does not seem to be the right choice. Well, Firefox has supported theming since forever, allowing you to clad your browser in the colors you want and like. Technically, problem solved. Except, what if you don't want themes from random people, but rather, only something officially released by Mozilla? Follow me.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Internet Society ☛ From Curiosity to Confidence: CodificaKids Builds Digital Trust in Rural Brazil

    In 2024, the Internet Society Brazil Chapter launched CodificaKids, a hands-on digital safety workshop for young people.

  • APNIC ☛ Building resilient self hosted services is not always easy

    Resiliency through more redundancy is important no matter the scenario.

  • APNIC ☛ APNIC and NIXI partner to strengthen routing security and technical capacity in India

    The partnership will expand IPv6 and RPKI deployment including piloting an RPKI Repository Mirror to support a more secure and resilient Internet ecosystem.

  • APNIC ☛ 2026 APNIC Survey report released

    The 2026 APNIC Survey report is now available, providing valuable feedback from Members and the wider Internet community on APNIC’s performance, priorities, and future direction.

• Monopolies/Monopsonies

  • Digital Music News ☛ Spotify-Backed Coalition for App Fairness Urges UK Regulators to Pause Fashion Company Apple and Surveillance Giant Google App Store Fees

    As the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) weighs implementing a new steering requirement for the App Store and the Play Store, the Coalition for App Fairness (CAF) is urging a related fee freeze pending the final regulation’s rollout.

  • Patents

    • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Who Keeps the Skill: A Randomized Trial of Hey Hi (AI) Patent Drafting at Eleven Firms [Ed: If law firms use LLM slop, they need to immediately lose the licence to operate. There's no excuse for normalising this.]

      A randomized trial gave 133 patent monopoly lawyers an Hey Hi (AI) drafting assistant for 90 days. Drafts improved, but only senior lawyers kept the gain without it.

    • Unified Patents ☛ Wilus Wi-Fi patent monopoly challenge granted

      On September 8, 2026, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) granted Unified’s request, finding substantial new questions of patentability on all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 12,150,105, owned by Wilus Institute of Standards & Technology, Inc., an entity of Good Day to Invent, Inc. The '105 patent monopoly relates to wireless communication terminals and signaling, and more specifically to signaling information indicating circumstances in which operations based on the  Basic Service Set (BSS) color are not used. This challenge is part of Unified’s Wi-Fi zone and is the seventh filing against Wilus by Unified.

    • JUVE ☛ Five biosimilar manufacturers attack Millenium’s Entyvio patents in London [Ed: Patents do not get "attacked" and monopolies are not "gifts from God", many are an injustice and corruption within the system]

      Some of the lawsuits against vedolizumab in the UK date back to early this year. Initially, Fresenius Kabi and Advanz Pharma filed revocation actions in February against most of the patents protecting the biologic (case IDs: HP-2026-000010 and HP-2026-000011).

    • JUVE ☛ TOWA wins PI from Munich Regional Court against Accord for bloodthinner dabigatran [Ed: No due process, sanctions before justice or determination issued; this is against the principles of innocent until proven guilty]

      TOWA is a Japanese generic drug manufacturer which, like other generics manufacturers, continues to refine formulations and develops so-called value-added medicines. In this role, generics manufacturers also become patent monopoly holders.

  • Trademarks

    • Right of Publicity

      • Futurism ☛ Someone AI-Generated a Completely Fake Eminem Song That’s Already Gotten 120,000 View on YouTube, Where It’s Appearing More Prominently Than Some of the Rapper’s Actual Music

        This is not the real Slim Shady.

  • Copyrights

    • Digital Music News ☛ Federal Judge Dismisses Wixen’s $100 Million-Plus Infringement Lawsuit Against Meta — Though This Case Is Far From Over, Folks

      Eight months later, a federal judge has dismissed Wixen’s copyright monopoly and defamation lawsuit against Meta for failing “to adequately allege standing under the Copyright Act.” But with an amended complaint now on the way, the ugly legal battle is far from over.