Leftovers

• Hackaday ☛ Lorentz Cannon Fires Lightning

  [Editor’s note: This video disappeared, but it has been archived here. We’re leaving the original links as-were in case they come back up.]

• Simone Silvestroni ☛ Simpler Things

  Almost a month ago I drafted a personal plan to eschew a sizeable part of the insane lifestyle I've been somewhat following ever since tech turned itself into its current incarnation: a gargantuan mafia. Time for an update. Besides following up on account deletions—Microsoft above all, Google currently in (slow) motion—I focused on practical gestures that have tangible daily effects.

• Sara Jakša ☛ In Reply to Tracy's Guiding principles for my website

  I try to value the humans on the [Internet] and not the machines on the [Internet]. I believe in the human [Internet] and that everybody here wants to express their humanity in whatever way they can.

• Chris Enns ☛ Do Real-Life People Blog?

  I write on my blog to get thoughts out of my head and somewhere else. The main reason I don't just journal it privately is that I'm not motivated to write in a journal the same way I am with my blog.

  I write on my blog when I've figured something out. If I went through the trouble of learning how to fix or do something, someone else might need that someday. (And 9 times out of 10, that someone is me because I forget what I did and end up finding my own blog post.)

• Ruben Schade ☛ Solving the Moving Sofa Problem

  We’ve all encountered that moment, faced with a corner or a set of stairs, and wondering how in the hell we’re going to fit our couch, fridge, or 42RU server rack around it.

  Jac Murtagh over at the Scientific American has some great news! The maximum size of an object that can fit around a corner is now knowable:

  What’s the largest couch that can turn a corner? After 58 years, we finally know. The problem sat unsolved for nearly 60 years until November, when Jineon Baek, a postdoc at Yonsei University in Seoul, posted a paper online claiming to resolve it. Baek’s proof has yet to undergo thorough peer review, but initial passes from mathematicians who know Baek and the moving sofa problem seem optimistic.

• Ruben Schade ☛ Our new sandstone friend

  Clara and I were walking down the street last week—as one tends to do when requiring bi-pedalled locomotion to a specific location without encountering a powered vehicle of some sort—when we noticed a large truck depositing a small shower of rocks and other debris on the side of the road after what could best be described as an ill-advised, last-minute turn into a side-street. Some of those words did not require a hyphen, or likely any of them, but I haven’t used them in a while and I thought it fitting.

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Humans Are Evolving Before Our Eyes on The Tibetan Plateau

    "Previously we knew that lower hemoglobin was beneficial, now we understand that an intermediate value has the highest benefit. We knew that higher oxygen saturation of hemoglobin was beneficial, now we understand that the higher the saturation the more beneficial. The number of live births quantifies the benefits," Beall said.

    "It was unexpected to find that women can have many live births with low values of some oxygen transport traits if they have favorable values of other oxygen transport traits."

  • Cryptography Engineering ☛ How to prove false statements? (Part 2) – A Few Thoughts on Cryptographic Engineering

    Today I want to move forward and (get closer) to actually talking about the recent result alluded to in the title: the recent paper by Khovratovich, Rothblum and Soukhanov entitled “How to Prove False Statements: Practical Attacks on Fiat-Shamir” (henceforth: KRS.) This paper shows that a proving scheme that appears to be secure in one setting, might not actually be secure.

    One approach to discussing this paper would be to start at the beginning of the paper and then move towards the end. We will not do that. Instead, I plan to pursue an approach that involves a lot of jumping around. There is a method to my madness.

    Before we can get there, we need to cover a bit more essential background.

  • Science Alert ☛ The Pandemic Did Not Affect The Moon After All, Scientists Say [Ed: Clickbait nonsense]

    "It seems to be a bit of a stretch."

• Career/Education

  • Nebraska Examiner ☛ School cellphone ban advances to full Nebraska Legislature, first of Pillen’s 2025 priorities

    The first of Gov. Jim Pillen’s 2025 legislative priorities advanced Thursday to the full Nebraska Legislature: banning most student cellphones in public K-12 schools.

    The Legislature’s Education Committee voted 7-0, with one member absent, to advance Legislative Bill 140 from State Sen. Rita Sanders of Bellevue, which was introduced at Pillen’s request.

  • Coalition for Networked Information ☛ Reminder: Submit Your Proposal for CNI’s Spring 2025 Meeting

    We welcome proposals on timely topics, state-of-the-art developments, or cross-institutional projects related to networked information content and technologies.

    Presentations are typically 30 minutes to one hour; we also accept five-minute lightning talks.

  • Unmitigated Risk ☛ From Plato to AI: Why Understanding Matters More Than Information

    The same principle applies today. We live in an era where access to knowledge is not the bottleneck. AI can summarize court rulings, analyze laws, and map out how different governance systems compare. Information is endless, but comprehension is scarce. The problem isn’t finding knowledge—it’s knowing what matters, how to think critically about it, and how to engage with it.

    This issue isn’t unique to civic engagement. It’s the same challenge students face as AI reshapes how they learn. It’s no longer enough to teach kids historical dates, formulas, or legal principles. They need to know how to question sources, evaluate reliability, and synthesize information in meaningful ways. They need to be prepared for a world where facts are easy to retrieve, but judgment, reasoning, and application are the real skills that matter.

  • University of Michigan ☛ Beyond the Stacks: The Modern Evolution of Law Libraries

    The emergence of computers and the [Internet] has reshaped nearly every aspect of how libraries operate. At the same time, trends in legal education and the profession have led to changes in collections management, research-based curriculum, scholarship, the student experience, and other aspects of how law libraries support their institutions and the public more broadly.

    In the following article, Law Quadrangle speaks with three directors of Michigan Law’s library—representing more than eight decades of cumulative service to the Law School and its faculty and students—as well as alumni who have served in leadership roles at the law libraries at Boston University and the University of Notre Dame, to discuss these trends; their impact on students, faculty, and society; and the enduring value of law libraries.

• Hardware

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Intel data center CPU sales hit the lowest point in 13 years

    Cloud service providers increasingly prefer high core-count CPUs, thus reducing the number of processors and servers they deploy.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Doom runs on an Apple Lightning to HDMI dongle — SoC inside adapter has enough power for smooth gameplay

    This Apple adapter from 2012 has more power than a PC from 1993.

  • Dominik Schwind ☛ OM–3

    Roughly a year ago I decided I had to do something about my slowly declining enjoyment of taking photos. And because I am me, obviously the solution would be to buy a new camera.

  • The Next Platform ☛ How Much Money Does Arm Make In The Datacenter?

    As we have been saying for quite some time, when it comes to datacenter CPUs, we think that homegrown Arm processors (as well as those made by independents Ampere Computing and Huawei Technologies) will eventually represent at least half of the computing capacity that the hyperscalers and major cloud builders install.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • New Yorker ☛ How to Make Eggs Affordable Again

    Free imprisoned Capitol insurrectionists. Someone’s gotta replace all the deported farmworkers.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Over 100 deaths a day: UN warns of air pollution’s toll on young children in East Asia, Pacific

    More than 500 million children in these regions live in countries with unhealthy levels of pollution.

  • EcoWatch ☛ Air Pollution Exposure Reduces Ability to Concentrate on Everyday Tasks: Study

    The scientists discovered that people who were even briefly exposed to high levels of particulate matter (PM) could find it harder to avoid distractions and act in a manner that was socially acceptable, a press release from the University of Birmingham said.

  • Annie Mueller ☛ I’m gonna keep making shit and I hope you will too

    When things are bad, as they so very often are, I like to crawl into a little hole and stay there, curled up. I want to withdraw. Nurse my wounds, or at least sleep until the pain subsides a bit.

  • Vox ☛ Daily journaling: How to start and be consistent at it

    The first scientific study that helped popularize journaling as a mainstream form of mental health care was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1999, Adams says. Two groups of rheumatoid arthritis and asthma patients were asked to do the Pennebaker method, a writing exercise in which they would write down their thoughts and feelings daily for three days. The control group wrote about neutral topics, while the other group wrote about their most stressful life events.

  • Democracy for the Arab World Now ☛ Trump’s Gutting of Foreign Aid Is a Threat to Global Health

    These actions, many of which defy Congress and are abuses of executive branch authority, have caused havoc for aid groups and other governments and undermined relationships built up over years of American foreign policy. While some foreign assistance programs have received waivers on an ad hoc basis to resume at least some of their work, the overwhelming confusion and uncertainty have thrown the global health community into tumult, dismantling decades of American leadership on global health and threatening remarkable progress in fighting infectious diseases around the world.

  • New Yorker ☛ The Cancer Scams That Foreshadowed MAHA

    Long before R.F.K., Jr., promised to “Make America Healthy Again,” wellness influencers were peddling a seductive promise of purity to the desperately sick.

  • Stanford University ☛ Meet Heike Daldrup-Link: Radiologist and author of medical mystery novels

    Author of “The Claim: A Medical Mystery” and “The Body Transplant” among other novels, radiology professor Heike Daldrup-Link uses storytelling to highlight challenges in healthcare and society.

  • Latvia ☛ Unusual flu symptoms this season in Latvia

    Many hospitals in Latvia are under quarantine due to respiratory illnesses. Doctors at Vidzeme Hospital admit that this flu season is different this year in that the traditionally high temperatures that are characteristic of this virus are not observed, Latvian Television reported on February 5.

  • BIA Net ☛ Women still struggle to access healthcare services two years after earthquakes

    Women are finding it increasingly difficult to book appointments and have to wait months for procedures such as tests and MRIs, according to a healthcare workers' union.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Eat The Cookie Up, Call PETA—Post Malone’s OREO Team Up Strikes PETA’s Ire

    Post Malone has teamed up with Mondelēz International for an exclusive flavor of OREO cookies.

  • Science Alert ☛ COVID-19 May Be Linked With Higher Alzheimer's Risk, Study Finds

    Similar to four years of aging, researchers say.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Kowloon Reservoir resumes operations after car found submerged in water supply

    A reservoir in Sha Tin has resumed operations, Hong Kong’s Water Supplies Department (WSD) said on Wednesday, after a car was found submerged in the reservoir over the weekend. The Kowloon Reservoir resumed operations on Thursday, the department said in a statement on the Facebook (Farcebook) page for its mascot, Water Save Dave.

• Proprietary

  • The Register UK ☛ VA reboots Oracle health records project for $330M

    The new payments relate to a $300 million agreement for optimization of the electronic health records (EHR) management system and a $29 million deal for identity and access management support and enhancement, published late last year, a spokesperson said. These payments come under the original $9.99 billion deal, launched in 2018.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    • Hackaday ☛ A Great Use For AI: Wasting Scammers Time!

      We may have found the killer app for AI. Well, actually, British telecom provider O2 has. As The Guardian reports, they have an AI chatbot that acts like a 78-year-old grandmother and receives phone calls. Of course, since the grandmother—Daisy, by name—doesn’t get any real phone calls, anyone calling that number is probably a scammer. Daisy’s specialty? Keeping them tied up on the phone.

    • Bruce Schneier ☛ AIs and Robots Should Sound Robotic

      But there is something fundamentally different about talking with a bot as opposed to a person. A person can be a friend. An AI cannot be a friend, despite how people might treat it or react to it. AI is at best a tool, and at worst a means of manipulation. Humans need to know whether we’re talking with a living, breathing person or a robot with an agenda set by the person who controls it. That’s why robots should sound like robots.

      You can’t just label AI-generated speech. It will come in many different forms. So we need a way to recognize AI that works no matter the modality. It needs to work for long or short snippets of audio, even just a second long. It needs to work for any language, and in any cultural context. At the same time, we shouldn’t constrain the underlying system’s sophistication or language complexity.

      We have a simple proposal: all talking AIs and robots should use a ring modulator. In the mid-twentieth century, before it was easy to create actual robotic-sounding speech synthetically, ring modulators were used to make actors’ voices sound robotic. Over the last few decades, we have become accustomed to robotic voices, simply because text-to-speech systems were good enough to produce intelligible speech that was not human-like in its sound. Now we can use that same technology to make robotic speech that is indistinguishable from human sound robotic again.

    • Drew Breunig ☛ A Gentle Intro to Running a Local LLM

      But there is an overarching story across the field: LLMs are getting smarter and more efficient.

      And while we continually hear about LLMs getting smarter, before the DeepSeek kerfuffle we didn’t hear so much about improvements in model efficiency. But models have been getting steadily more efficient, for years now. Those who keep tabs on these smaller models know that DeepSeek wasn’t a step-change anomaly, but an incremental step in an ongoing narrative.

      These open models are now good enough that you – yes, you – can run a useful, private model for free on your own computer. And I’ll walk you through it.

    • Futurism ☛ Google Retroactively Edits Super Bowl Ad to Remove Embarrassing Error Its AI Made

      The video then shows Gemini being prompted with a request to generate a "description of Smoked Gouda that would appeal to cheese lovers." In response, the AI produces a short paragraph of copy that, amid glowing sentiments about gouda's creamy texture, confidently declares that gouda accounts for "50 to 60 percent of the world's cheese consumption."

    • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ Using A.I., Researchers Peer Inside a 2,000-Year-Old Scroll Charred by Mount Vesuvius' Eruption

      Researchers think the scrolls contain ancient literary and philosophical texts. However, they are too badly burned—and too fragile—to be unrolled by hand, though many have tried over the past 270 years. Because of the intense heat produced by the eruption, the scrolls resemble brittle lumps of charcoal.

      As a result, researchers have had to take a different approach: They’re using artificial intelligence and other technologies to digitally “unroll” the scrolls.

    • The Register UK ☛ No customers piling up for Copilot+ PCs

      This is according to Context, which tracked sales-out data from distributors showing that 40 percent of laptops sold in Europe in Q4 were AI PCs yet just 5 percent of these were classified under the Copilot+ category.

      "Manufacturers are embedding AI functionality into more devices, making AI PCs an inevitability rather than a choice for many buyers," said Marie-Christine Pygott, senior analyst at Context. "But this doesn't mean consumers are actively seeking these features."

    • The Verge ☛ Lyft is using Anthropic’s Claude AI for customer service | The Verge

      Lyft announced a new partnership with Anthropic to use the Claude AI assistant to handle customer service requests.

      Claude is already being put to use handling service inquiries from drivers, reducing the average resolution [sic]x time for a request by 87 percent, the company said.

    • Geshan ☛ Ollama commands: How to use Ollama in the command line [Part 2]

      Ollama is an open-source tool that helps you run open LLMs on your machine or a server. It is the glue layer between your machine (or hardware) and the open LLM of your choice. In this post, you will learn about the Ollama command you can use to get the most out of it; let’s get going!

    • Jeff Geerling ☛ How to build Ollama to run LLMs on RISC-V Linux

      RISC-V is the new entrant into the SBC/low-end desktop space, and as I'm in possession of a HiFive Premier P550 motherboard, I am running it through my usual gauntlet of benchmarks—partly to see how fast it is, and partly to gauge how far along RISC-V support is in general across a wide swath of Linux software.

      From my first tests on the VisionFive 2 back in 2023 to today, RISC-V has seen quite a bit of growth, fueled by economics, geopolitical wrangling, and developer interest.

    • Press Gazette ☛ Fifteen essential Hey Hi (AI) resources for publishers [Ed: Promoting buzzwords and plagiarism instead of fighting back [1, 2, 3] is a losing strategy]

      Paul Hood recommends some essential podcasts, newsletters, events and Hey Hi (AI) tools for publishers.

  • Social Control Media

    • The Straits Times ☛ South Korean public official fired after flaunting Disneyland visit during business trip

      The employee filed a complaint with the court, arguing that the visit occurred during free time.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • The Register UK ☛ Gravy Analytics soaks up another sueball over data breach

      A complaint [PDF], filed in federal court in northern California yesterday, is at least the fourth such lawsuit against Gravy since January, when an unidentified criminal posted screenshots to XSS, a Russian cybercrime forum, to support claims that 17 TB of records had been pilfered from the American analytics outfit's AWS S3 storage buckets.

      The suit this week alleges that massive archive contains the geo-locations of people's phones.

    • Krebs On Security ☛ Experts Flag Security, Privacy Risks in DeepSeek AI App

      There were other, less alarming security and privacy issues highlighted in the report, but Hoog said he’s confident there are additional, unseen security concerns lurking within the app’s code.

      “When we see people exhibit really simplistic coding errors, as you dig deeper there are usually a lot more issues,” Hoog said. “There is virtually no priority around security or privacy. Whether cultural, or mandated by China, or a witting choice, taken together they point to significant lapse in security and privacy controls, and that puts companies at risk.”

    • Axios ☛ DeepSeek "unauthorized" for congressional use, House official says

      Why it matters: Congress has struggled to navigate the security and administrative challenges posed by the rapid advancement of AI technology.

      • "At this time, DeepSeek is under review by the CAO and is currently unauthorized for official House use," the House's Chief Administrative Officer said in a notice to congressional offices obtained by Axios.

      What they're saying: The notice warned that "threat actors are already exploiting DeepSeek to deliver malicious software and infect devices."

    • Pivot to AI ☛ How to remove Copilot AI from your Office 365 subscription: hit ‘cancel’

      If you hit “Switch plans,” the site won’t show you the non-Copilot option — only other plans they want you to upgrade to.

      You need to hit the “Cancel subscription” link. Then the old, cheaper, no-Copilot plan suddenly becomes an option.

    • EPIC ☛ Paying for Iris Scans: AI-Fueled Surveillance Harms

      While a visually striking example—indeed, an American tech billionaire paying people in a Global Majority country, in cryptocurrency, for their iris scans does ring of a dystopian Hollywood flick—it speaks to a bigger problem. Hype about AI research and development is driving companies to buy people’s data where they otherwise weren’t and, conversely, to sell people’s (including customers’ and users’) data where they otherwise wouldn’t. These practices are harmful already. And their acceleration by the AI craze is poised to rapidly increase data-sharing, -selling, and -monetization threats to privacy in the coming years. This enables the repeat exploitation of people’s data and causes especially pronounced harm to vulnerable people and communities.

    • International Business Times ☛ Google Reverses Stance, Now Permits Weapons Development With Revised AI Guidelines As Competition Heats Up

      Alphabet, Google's parent company, has reversed its stance on avoiding artificial intelligence (AI) applications for weapons and surveillance.

      On 4th February, the tech giant announced updates to its AI ethics principles, notably removing the pledge to avoid developing technology that could 'cause or is likely to cause overall harm.' Google's AI chief, Demis Hassabis, stated that the revisions reflect the evolving landscape, highlighting AI's growing role in enhancing 'national security.'

    • The Record ☛ Italy says Paragon spyware targeted victims in dozens of European countries

      Seven Italians and victims in more than a dozen other European countries were targeted with spyware as part of a broad hacking campaign revealed by WhatsApp on Friday, the Italian government said.

• Defence/Aggression

  • JURIST ☛ US appeals court dismisses lawsuit accusing Meta of radicalizing Charleston church shooter

    The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to hold Meta—parent company of Facebook—liable for its alleged role in helping radicalize Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof.

  • Techdirt ☛ But Her Emails Redux: Team Trump Makes CIA Send List Of All Recently Hired Employees Over Unclassified Email

    So, really, if anyone were briefed on how emails can be insecure, you would hope it was the Trump administration.

    About that… Yesterday, the NY Times revealed that the Trump administration demanded that the CIA hand over the names of everyone the CIA hired in the last two years which, for fairly obvious reasons, could contain some pretty sensitive information.

    So, of course, the White House demanded this sensitive information be sent via unclassified email.

  • Techdirt ☛ A Dangerous Lack Of Clarity: Does DOGE’s Negotiated “Read Only” Access Mean “Read Only” Access To Data Or Code?

    This order comes after reporting from earlier this week that, despite promises from the Treasury Department that Krause had “read only” access, Elez appeared to have admin privileges and may have even pushed live code into the system. Nathan Tankus, who has been closely tracking the access issue also reported today that, from a practical standpoint, Elez’s access may have already been somewhat curtailed in response to public reporting.

  • The Atlantic ☛ Trump’s Assault on USAID Makes Project 2025 Look Like Child’s Play

    Before the election, Donald Trump disavowed Project 2025 because it veered so far to the right. But now he’s making the plan look downright timid. Project 2025 did not call for freezing all foreign aid or locking USAID employees out of their headquarters. Nor did the treatise suggest shutting down the $40 billion agency and subsuming it into the State Department—all without a single vote in Congress.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Indonesia health programmes with USAID on hold, minister says

    Jakarta said it remains unclear whether they will be permanently suspended.

  • New Yorker ☛ Elon Musk’s Revolutionary Terror

    The evisceration of U.S.A.I.D. isn’t a policy fight—it’s an execution designed to strike fear in our own government.

  • Nexstar Media Group Inc ☛ Sanders: 'What Musk is doing is illegal'

    Sanders, in the interview, also said he thinks the U.S. government has become an oligarchy. He criticized Musk for spending more than $200 million to boost Trump’s campaign in the 2024 election cycle and noted that, already, Musk’s net worth has increased by more than $150 million since Trump was sworn in.

    “You tell me whether or not we are living in an oligarchy,” Sanders said. “And I think the function of government under Trump, under Elon Musk, will not be to serve ordinary people, but to make the very richest people in this country even richer.”

  • New Yorker ☛ Elon Musk’s Revolutionary Terror

    It’s also true that, if cutting the federal government is what this is all about, then Trump and Musk would not be bothering with tiny U.S.A.I.D., whose estimated budget of some forty billion dollars is less than one per cent of the federal government’s. The point is not a policy fight; it’s an execution. They are killing one agency to terrify a thousand others. Congress should be one of the main aggrieved parties here, given that it passed the laws authorizing U.S.A.I.D. and other departments under attack and appropriating the funding for them, but this is the Republican-controlled Congress in the age of Trump. Speaker Mike Johnson, on Wednesday, dismissed the furor over Musk’s power play as “gross overreaction in the media.” Perhaps the most perfect distillation of where elected Republican officials are at right now came from the North Carolina senator Thom Tillis. Asked about what Musk is doing on Trump’s behalf, he replied, “That runs afoul of the Constitution in the strictest sense.” But, he added, “nobody should bellyache about that.”

  • Maine Morning Star ☛ U.S. Senate confirms Russ Vought, a Project 2025 author, to manage the nation’s budget

    Objections to Vought centered around his goal to give the president more authority over federal spending decisions, which Democrats said is a violation of the separation of powers in the Constitution.

    “Congress makes laws and appropriates funds, not the president,” New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan said. “At stake is not a legal technicality, at stake is our very notion of self-government, a notion that Mr. Vought appears to disdain.”

  • The Washington Post ☛ Greenland bans foreign political funding as Trump seeks control

    Its government said the law aims to protect the Danish territory’s “political integrity” and must be seen in light of the geopolitical interests in Greenland.

  • Vox ☛ Democratic resistance revives to take on Donald Trump, Elon Musk agenda

    Gathered on the eastern steps of the US Treasury Department’s DC headquarters Tuesday evening, some two dozen Democratic members of Congress rallied a few hundred protesters against Elon Musk. Specifically, they were protesting his disassembly of the federal workforce and rapid takeover of access to the government’s payment systems, at President Donald Trump’s behest. “Nobody elected Elon!” the posters they brought read.

  • The Nation ☛ Protesters Demand Action From Feckless Democrats

    The crowd had been marshaled by a trio of liberal advocacy groups: Move On and the Working Families Party as well as Indivisible. At well over 1,000 strong, it was primed to hear Levin’s pitch. Indeed, the protesters’ impatient wonky disposition came at times as a rebuke to the clutch of Democratic lawmakers who delivered speeches registering anger and outrage at the Musk-Trump administration’s unprecedented assault on the separation of powers, government payments, the privacy of ordinary citizens, and the need to face it all down. As one after another member of Congress outlined the horrors perpetrated by Musk and his team of tech lackeys, protesters would shout back, “Arrest them when they come out!” and “Lock him up!” As the speeches continued, one especially plaintive chant took hold in the crowd: “Tell us what to do!”

  • Freedom From Religion Foundation ☛ Trump weaponizing Justice Department to enforce Christian privilege

    Trump, as he promised his Christian evangelical base, is taking steps to redefine and weaponize religious liberty to allow discrimination in the name of religion and the privileging of Christianity. The U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of religion and a secular government — not special privileges for any one faith. Trump’s executive order is nothing more than a political ploy to advance Christian nationalism and undermine the separation of church and state.

  • The Register UK ☛ Dems ask Trump admin to explain itself on national security

    "Reckless attacks on federal workers risk reversing recent progress in addressing the federal government's cyber workforce shortage," the letter states.

  • The Register UK ☛ Musk' DOGE leashed by court after digging up Treasury data

    A federal court order [PDF], issued today by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington DC, limits DOGE's access to systems within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS), granting just read-only privileges to just two DOGE aides who were just made special government employees at the Treasury: Cloud Software Group CEO Tom Krause, and 25-year-old Marko Elez, previously an engineer at Musk's social media giant X.

    It was reported earlier that Elez, at least, had gained sysadmin-level access to Treasury systems, as a DOGE operative, and had already pushed code direct into production there to make it easier to block payments.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ Federal judge partially blocks DOGE’s access to Treasury financial systems

    Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in response to a lawsuit from a coalition of labor unions against the Treasury Department and Secretary Scott Bessent, wrote in her ruling that the defendants cannot “provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained by or within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service.”

  • Scoop News Group ☛ Senate confirms Russell Vought to lead OMB in party-line vote

    Democrats put up a 30-hour floor fight against Vought, one of the architects of the Heritage Foundation’s playbook to dismantle the federal government. Leading up to his confirmation, Vought faced withering questioning from Senate Democrats during hearings before the chamber’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Budget committees, particularly about policies spelled out in Project 2025 and for saying in a private speech that “we want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected.”

  • Scoop News Group ☛ DOJ disbands foreign influence task force, limits scope of FARA prosecutions 

    Both the task force and FARA were used by the bureau to investigate, charge and disrupt foreign and domestic actors accused of working to influence American policy on behalf of other nations.

  • Mint Press News ☛ Erik Prince Smells Blood in Gaza—And He’s Ready to Cash In

    On July 15, 2024, Prince took the stage at a Heritage Foundation event in Wisconsin, where he delivered a startling admission. “I provided the Israelis a fully-funded, donated ability to flood Gaza with sea water [sic].” Prince’s enthusiasm for Tel Aviv’s war extended well beyond logistics. In the debut episode of his podcast, “Off-Leash,” he seized the opportunity to pitch his supposedly ultra-secure smartphone to Israeli audiences. Prince has also used “Off-Leash” to advocate for the recolonization of Africa and Latin America, declaring, “It’s time for us to just put the imperial hat back on, to say, we’re going to govern those countries.”

  • EcoWatch ☛ 2°C Climate Warming Target Is ‘Dead,’ Pioneering Climate Scientist Says

    The study, “Global Warming Has Accelerated: Are the United Nations and the Public Well-Informed?” was published in the journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development.

    “Global warming caused by reduced ship aerosols will not go away as tropical climate moves into its cool La Niña phase. Therefore, we expect that global temperature will not fall much below +1.5°C level, instead oscillating near or above that level for the next few years,” Hansen and colleagues wrote in the study. “The largest practical effect on humans today is increase of the frequency and severity of climate extremes. More powerful tropical storms, tornadoes, and thunderstorms, and thus more extreme floods, are driven by high sea surface temperature and a warmer atmosphere that holds more water vapor. Higher global temperature also increases the intensity of heat waves and – at the times and places of dry weather – high temperature increases drought intensity.”

  • Scoop News Group ☛ House Republicans block Democratic effort to subpoena Elon Musk over DOGE’s access to government data

    Democratic calls to hear from Musk follow the ongoing DOGE-led shutdown of USAID, the alleged sidestepping of federal law at the Office of Personnel Management via an email server, and the granting of systems access at the Treasury Department to DOGE workers.

    William Resh, an associate professor at University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy, said during Wednesday’s hearing that some of the reported DOGE work on government IT systems could pose “substantial” risks, “particularly given the extent to which this data could be used in training foundational models that Mr. Musk and his team could use to do this data analysis. I have no idea.”

  • France24 ☛ Ukraine's options: How to maintain US support in the age of Convicted Felon?

    What goes for Greenland and Gaza also goes for Ukraine?With the third anniversary of Russia’s all-out invasion approaching and Kyiv on the back foot, allies scrambling to figure out the ‘art of the deal’ power plays of a U.S. president they thought they already knew. Do you placate or push back? Ukraine’s president’s been showing transactional flair by vaunting his country’s rare minerals in exchange for protection from Putin.Zelensky who now openly contemplates what Convicted Felon wants, direct negotiations with Moscow. We’ll review terms and conditions and - on the day that France delivers its first Mirage jets to Kyiv - the degree of volatility the coming weeks and months may bring for Ukraine and for a Europe that’s still divided over whether to weene itself off its reliance on the United States for its own security.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Why does first lady Kim Keon Hee not visit detained South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol?

    The first lady has no plans to visit her husband while he is detained.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s impeached prime minister says Cabinet expressed concerns over martial law plan

    Han Duck-soo faced parliamentary questioning over his role in Yoon's martial law decision.

  • North Korea to punish officials for getting free booze

    Hearing about a drinking party, Kim Jong Un orders an investigation into corruption

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • LRT ☛ Another independence day: Baltics count days to syncing with European electric grid

      On February 9, the Baltic states will synchronise their electricity grids with continental Europe and disconnect from the Moscow-centred zone.

    • Latvia ☛ Saeima committee mulls restricting travel from Latvia to Belarus

      Risks of recruitment, unjustified detention, prosecution and even imprisonment may be possible when travelling to Belarus, warns the State Security Service. Latvia has no legal possibilities to help Latvians imprisoned in Belarus. The idea of discussing the possibility of restricting tourism to Belarus has been raised in the Saeima's responsible committee, Latvian Television reported on February 5.

    • Latvia ☛ Frontex warns of Russian 'hybrid warfare tactics' on EU's eastern border

      The European Union's border security agency, Frontex, issued a series of warnings about potential Russian manipulation of migration lows in its annual brief for 2024 and outlook or 2025.

    • RFERL ☛ Trump's Ukraine Envoy Has 'Thorough Discussion' With Ukrainian Ambassador

      The Ukrainian ambassador to the United States held what she said was a “thorough discussion” with U.S. President The Insurrectionist's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, who has been tasked with finding a resolution to the war in Ukraine.

    • New York Times ☛ To Keep Aid Coming, Ukraine Appeals to Convicted Felon Allies: Conservative Christians

      A Ukrainian delegation to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington will make the case that Russia threatens the religious freedom of Christians who don’t follow the Russian Orthodox Church.

    • RFERL ☛ Kellogg Rejects Report That Convicted Felon's Ukraine Peace Plan Will Be Revealed Next Week

      U.S. President The Insurrectionist’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, has confirmed that he will take part next week in the Munich Security Conference but rejected a report that he will reveal the White House's peace proposal while in Germany.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukraine Welcomes Deliveries Of Mirage, F-16 Fighter Jets To Strengthen Air Defenses

      France and the Netherlands delivered fighter jets to Ukraine, giving Kyiv a major boost in its ability to defend Ukrainian airspace amid an almost daily barrage of Russian attacks.

    • RFERL ☛ U.S. Attorney General Ends Task Force Targeting Assets Of Russian Oligarchs

      The U.S. Justice Department is disbanding a program aimed at seizing the assets of Russian oligarchs started after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Russian foreign minister compares Convicted Felon’s ‘America First’ to Nazi propaganda

      Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has compared US President The Insurrectionist's "America First" concept to Nazi propaganda as the Kremlin continues its long tradition of exploiting the trauma of World War II to demonize opponents, writes Peter Dickinson.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Ukraine can play a key role in Europe’s future energy architecture

      Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has highlighted the need for Europe to pursue greater energy flexibility and connectivity, writes Nataliya Katser-Buchkovska.

    • The Strategist ☛ North Korea is the big beneficiary in its military partnership with Russia

      North Korea is getting more out of its engagement in Russia’s war than Russia is getting from North Korea.

    • Latvia ☛ Latvian public media charity campaign for Ukraine launched

      In the month of three years since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Latvian Public Service Media (LSM) in cooperation with "Ziedot.lv" is launching a support campaign "In thoughts and deeds together with Ukraine". The campaign runs from Thursday, February 6, to March 2, and the funds donated will be directed to children in Ukraine and medical aid.

    • Latvia ☛ Second UNHCR refugee support plan launched in Latvia

      On February 6, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) launched the 2025-2026 Regional Response Plan for Ukraine in Latvia, a framework of cooperation between governmental, non-governmental, and international organizations.

    • Latvia ☛ Charity concert with Latvian and Ukrainian musicians on February 28

      On February 28, the cultural venue "Vagonu Hall" in cooperation with the association "Tavi draugi" organises a charity concert in support of Ukrainian paramedics, the organizers said.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Deseret Media ☛ FCC releases '60 Minutes' transcript, full video of Kamala Harris interview

    CBS said on Wednesday the transcripts "show — consistent with 60 Minutes' repeated assurances to the public — that the 60 Minutes broadcast was not doctored or deceitful."

  • Vox ☛ Is JD Vance right about Christianity’s idea of ordo amoris?

    There are a lot of problems with Vance’s drive-by exegesis of Christian texts. Not only does his interpretation run against the dominant message of the Gospels (which is about radical love, as bishops and priests have been at pains to point out), it also runs against what Augustine himself actually said.

• Environment

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Cracking the Burmese python code: Data analysis reveals optimal strategies for removing them from Florida

    Researchers correlated survey outcomes, including python removals, with survey conditions, using statistical modeling. For example, the researchers examined if factors like time or temperature impacted the chance of removing a python. They also analyzed whether the most surveyed areas aligned with the highest python removals. This allowed the researchers to identify regions where few contractors are catching a lot of pythons, indicating more contractors working in these locations could result in more pythons removed.

  • Science Alert ☛ Radioactive Dust Still Blows Over The Sahara From Cold War Nuclear Tests

    Led by a team from Paris-Saclay University in France, the study researchers found the radioactivity to be well below levels that would be considered hazardous – less than two-hundredths of the safety thresholds – but it's a reminder of how long nuclear fallout can persist in the environment.

  • Jason Kottke ☛ Eight Clams Control This Polish City’s Water Supply

    According to The Economist (archive), more than 50 such systems are now deployed in Poland and Russia to help protect water supplies: [...]

  • CBC ☛ UBC researchers say space junk has increasing potential to disrupt air travel

    Large, uncontrolled space junk reentering Earth's atmosphere has the increasing potential to disrupt air travel, if affected airspace is closed as a precaution, according to a new study by three University of British Columbia (UBC) researchers.

  • Nature ☛ Airspace closures due to reentering space objects | Scientific Reports

    Uncontrolled reentries of space objects create a collision risk with aircraft in flight. While the probability of a strike is low, the consequences could be catastrophic. Moreover, the risk is rising due to increases in both reentries and flights. In response, national authorities may choose to preemptively close airspace during reentry events; some have already done so. We determine the probability for a rocket body reentry within airspace over a range of air traffic densities. The highest-density regions, around major airports, have a 0.8% chance per year of being affected by an uncontrolled reentry. This rate rises to 26% for larger but still busy areas of airspace, such as that found in the northeastern United States, northern Europe, or around major cities in the Asia-Pacific region. For a given reentry, the collision risk in the underlying airspace increases with the air traffic density. However, the economic consequences of flight delays also increase should that airspace be closed. This situation puts national authorities in a dilemma—to close airspace or not—with safety and economic implications either way. The collision risk could be mitigated if controlled reentries into the ocean were required for all missions. However, over 2300 rocket bodies are already in orbit and will eventually reenter in an uncontrolled manner. Airspace authorities will face the challenge of uncontrolled reentries for decades to come.

  • Deccan Chronicle ☛ Earth Hits Record January Heat Despite La Niña and Cooling Predictions

    January 2025 globally was 0.09 degrees Celsius (0.16 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than January 2024, the previous hottest January, and was 1.75 degrees Celsius (3.15 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than it was before industrial times, Copernicus calculated. It was the 18th month of the last 19 that the world hit or passed the internationally agreed upon warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times. Scientists won't regard the limit as breached unless and until global temperatures stay above it for 20 years.

  • [Repeat] EDRI ☛ The mirage of EU techno-solutionism to the climate crisis

    Technology, as shaped by today’s market-driven priorities, carries immense hidden environmental and social costs. The tech sector is one of the fastest-growing contributors to waste and energy consumption. In 2021, it was responsible for two-to-three percent of global carbon emissions — on par with aviation.

    For instance, Microsoft’s emissions of the poisonous carbon monoxide gas have surged by nearly 30 percent since 2020, largely due to the expansion of its data centres. Similarly, Google’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 were almost 50 percent higher than in 2019.

  • The Barents Observer ☛ Norwegian coastal waters are getting warmer

    "We are noticing that the water is getting warmer," fisherman Kjell Figenschou told the Barents Observer.

    Figenschou, who fishes in the waters of the Barents Sea near the Arctic town of Kirkenes, says that fishing has become more difficult as a result: [...]

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea orders all airports to install bird detection cameras, radar [Ed: But that would not fix airplanes whose landing gear/wheels do not come down]

      The radar will detect the size of the bird and its movement paths, and the information will be relayed to pilots.

    • The Local DK ☛ Venice sleeper train setback reveals Europe's rail troubles

      Night trains in France carried one million people in 2024, up 23 percent from the previous year, according to clean transport advocacy group T&E.

      Several passengers on the Venice line cited climate concerns as a reason they decided against flying, which is much more polluting.

      But they also complained about high rail prices.

      A 2023 report by Greenpeace comparing the costs of flight and train tickets on 112 European routes found trains were on average twice as expensive.

      Rail sector operators blame a decades-long tax exemption on commercial aviation fuel.

    • Rodrigo Ghedin ☛ Using ChatGPT consumes a 500 ml bottle of water; so what?

      There are estimates that the AI race will double the tech sector’s share of global energy consumption by 2026. Which… is quite a lot, considering that the sector consumed between 1–1.3% of the total back in 2022.

      What can you or I do if we find this increase wasteful? To be honest, I think nothing. For us mere mortals, AI is inevitable. Like it or not, CEOs of major companies — who have the final say on the apps and websites we use daily, and how we use them — are convinced that this technology is revolutionary.

      Not just convinced: they are all in, hopeful that, like any truly revolutionary technology, AI holds substantial rewards for those who master it, even if it incurs “externalities,” including frying the planet.

    • David Rosenthal ☛ On Not Being Immutable

      Regulation of cryptocurrencies was an issue in last November's US election. Molly White documented the immense sums the industry devoted to electing a crypto-friendly Congress, and converting Trump's skepticism into enthusiasm. They had two goals, pumping the price and avoiding any regulation that would hamper them ripping off the suckers.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Baltic states unplug from Russia’s power grid—but Moscow still looms over critical infrastructure

      Having faced the destructive impacts of Russia’s weaponization of energy, the Baltic states have become leaders among European nations in severing ties with Russia’s energy supplies over the past decade. The installation of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Klaipėda, Lithuania’s seaport, in late 2014 marked a significant step in this direction. It opened the Baltic gas markets to global LNG suppliers, including those from the United States. This alternative gas supply route enabled the Baltic states to ban all Russian gas imports, both piped and LNG, just two months into Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. The Baltic states became the first European countries to take such a principled stance, and they are among those advocating for the rest of the EU members to follow suit by implementing a blanket ban on Russian LNG.

    • Vox ☛ What’s going on with battery technology? Why do my chargers keep ruining my phone?

      The lithium-ion batteries that power our phones, laptops, and even cars are inherently imperfect and destined to degrade over time. Almost everything we do makes this happen faster. That wireless charger I use overnight creates excess heat, which speeds up battery degradation. Ditto for fast charging.

      That means charging your phone correctly is practically impossible.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • New York Times ☛ Humpback Whales Sing the Way Humans Speak

      The animals’ complex songs share structural patterns with human language that may make them easier for whales to learn, a new study suggests.

    • New York Times ☛ CDC Posts, Then Deletes, Data on Bird Flu Transmission Between Cats and People

      The data, which appeared fleetingly online on Wednesday, confirmed transmission in two households. Scientists called on the agency to release the full report.

    • New York Times ☛ Dozens of Clinical Trials Have Been Frozen in Response to Convicted Felon’s USAID Order

      The stop-work order on U.S.A.I.D.-funded research has left thousands of people with experimental drugs and devices in their bodies, with no access to monitoring or care.

  • Overpopulation

    • University of Michigan ☛ From the Daily Weekly: Unpackaging Overconsumption

      In this episode of The Daily Weekly, we explore the rise of fast fashion and overconsumption on college campuses.

• Finance

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Amazon’s stock drops as cloud revenue comes up short and it doubles Hey Hi (AI) spending [Ed: "Hey hi" is a misleading smokescreen and the company is about 160 billion in debt]

    Amazon.com Inc. beat Wall Street’s expectations on fourth-quarter earnings and revenue today, but sales in its all-important clown computing business came up short, and guidance for the current quarter was light.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • France24 ☛ France: New divisions among left-wing coalition after no confidence vote

    France finally has a budget, after the government pushed the bill through by decree, and went on to survive a no confidence vote. But the episode has fractured the left wing opposition. The left emerged the largest group in parliament after last Summer's snap election, the different parties coming together in a bid to keep the far-right out of government, but the hard-left France Unbowed party says the Socialists have "deserted the trench"

  • US News And World Report ☛ Zuckerberg Was at White House for Meetings on Thursday, Official Says

  • Wired ☛ Donald Trump's NIH Pick Just Launched a Controversial Scientific Journal

    Carl Bergstrom, a theoretical and evolutionary biologist, believes the journal is part of an ongoing effort to cast doubt around established scientific consensus. “If you can create the illusion that there is not a predominance of opinion that says, vaccines and masks are effective ways of controlling the pandemic, then you can undermine that notion of scientific consensus, you can create uncertainty, and you can push a particular agenda forward,” he says. Peer-reviewed papers, he says, can provide cover to politicians who want to make certain decisions and they can also be used in court.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Workday lays off 1,760 employees to focus on AI and platform innovation

    The news of the layoffs was revealed in a memo to employees that was published as part of a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In the memo, Chief Executive Officer Carl Eschenbach said that Workday was at a “pivotal moment” where “companies everywhere are reimagining how work gets done, and the increasing demand for AI has the potential to drive a new era of growth.”

  • The Washington Post ☛ Tech giant Workday lays off 1,750 employees in shift to AI

    The layoffs will affect 8.5 percent of the company’s staff around the world. In the memo, Eschenbach said the Bay Area-based firm will be “prioritizing innovation investments like AI and platform development.” Eschenbach urged employees to work from home on Wednesday and said that those laid off in the United States will be offered a minimum of 12 weeks pay with additional weeks determined by tenure.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Meduza ☛ Elon Musk and Trump Jr. repost fake E! News video about USAID created by pro-Kremlin disinformation network

      Billionaire Elon Musk and U.S. first son Donald Trump Jr. have both shared a video on X that was originally posted by Russia’s Matryoshka disinformation network, according to the independent outlets Agentstvo and Holod, and the tracking project Bot Blocker.

    • VOA News ☛ Deepfake video impersonates VOA press freedom reporter

      While the videos, which were posted on X, may at first appear to be real, they are actually deepfakes — fake videos created with artificial intelligence to look authentic.

      Caicedo Smit said the videos are concerning.

      "As a journalist, it is extremely concerning that my image and voice are used to try to misinform audiences," she said in a statement.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Techdirt ☛ No More Pretense: Carr’s FCC Threatens News Radio Station For Reporting The News Too Specifically

    Sycophants do sycophantic things, that much is known. But the level to which newly-minted FCC chairman Brendan Carr has voluntarily debased himself purely to achieve his current station is extraordinary. We knew during the campaign season that Carr was eager to be America’s chief censor of any content the Dear Leader disliked. That the same Dear Leader deigned to refer to Carr as a “free speech warrior” could normally be described as double-speak, except that such a description would imply that Donald Trump has read 1984 at some point and I have a very hard time believing that to be true, save perhaps as an instruction manual. But the actions Carr has taken since his vulgar elevation to chairman are both unsurprising and so obviously counter to the concept of freedom of speech and serving the public as to be laughable.

    But should you need to see the hypocrisy starkly in action, not to mention how the far-right propaganda machine plans to serve the administration, you need only read about how Carr’s FCC is threatening one of the oldest radio stations in the country for reporting the news too specifically.

  • EFF ☛ Protecting Free Speech in Texas: We Need To Stop SB 336

    Texas Senate Bill 336 (SB 336) is an attack on the Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA), the state’s landmark anti-SLAPP law, passed in 2011 with overwhelming bipartisan support. If passed, SB 336 (or its identical companion bill, H.B. 2459) will weaken safeguards against abusive lawsuits that seek to silence peoples’ speech.

  • Adam Newbold ☛ About the cease and desist notice

    Today I had another conversation with my attorney, who reiterated her guidance that I need to not talk about any of this, period. I’m not able to answer any of the questions that people have about the notice I received—who sent it, what it included, etc.—but I would like to suggest that speculation isn’t productive. A shitty thing happened, and while I can understand the desire to learn more or to point fingers, that’s not going to help anyone. Some people have asked me how they can help, and the best answer I have is to join me in moving on. To those requesting that I share the notice or any details about it, please understand that you might as well be asking me to pour gasoline on an open flame. I’m not going to do it. If you were in my shoes (with kids and college and a mortgage), you wouldn’t, either.

  • The Moscow Times ☛ Russian Musician Dies After Fall From Window During Police Search – Reports

    A well-known St. Petersburg musician fell to his death from the window of his 10th-floor apartment during police searches over his alleged donations to the Ukrainian military, media reported Thursday.

  • Meduza ☛ Russian singer-songwriter who spoke out against war in Ukraine dies after falling from window during police raid

    In 2022, Stroykin criticized Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in a post on the social media site VKontakte.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Is Indonesia cracking down on atheism?

    In 2012, Alexander Aan, a civil servant, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for blasphemy after sharing atheist content on Facebook.

    Indonesia's criminal code punishes blasphemy and the spread of atheism, although technically, it does not criminalize the absence of religious belief itself.

    However, non-believers argue that existing laws are selectively enforced to deny them equal protection under the law.

  • RTL ☛ About Islam and George floyd: Spanish publisher cancels Gascon book over offensive posts

    But last week's unearthing of old posts denigrating Islam and George Floyd has unleashed a scandal that has harmed her reputation and the film's chances of Oscars glory.

  • The Atlantic ☛ The Unintentionally Hilarious Files of England’s Royal Theater Censors

    For centuries, these strict, dyspeptic, and sometimes unintentionally hilarious bureaucrats read and passed judgment on every public theatrical production in Britain, striking out references to sex, God, and politics, and forcing playwrights to, as one put it, cook their “conceptions to the taste of authority.” They reported to the Lord Chamberlain’s Office, which in 1737 became responsible for granting licenses to theaters and approving the texts of plays. “Examiners” made sure that no productions would offend the sovereign, blaspheme the Church, or stir audiences to political radicalism. An 1843 act expanded the department’s powers, calling upon it to block any play that threatened not just the “Public Peace” but “Decorum” and “good Manners.”

  • The Moscow Times ☛ Russian Jazz Musician Sentenced to 6 Years in Prison for Anti-War Facebook Posts

    Shabanov has psoriatic arthritis, an autoimmune disease affecting the skin and joints. At a court hearing last year, he stripped down to his underwear to show lesions on his body, telling the court that joint damage he had suffered while in custody would leave him unable to ever play music again.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • The Moscow Times ☛ Le Monde Criticizes ‘Disguised Expulsion’ of Reporter From Russia

    "This revocation of our right to practice our profession is without precedent," Le Monde's editorial director Jerome Fenoglio wrote in a column written in both French and Russian. "This arbitrary decision constitutes a new obstacle to the freedom of the press in the country."

    "Even in the tensest moments of the Cold War, Le Monde pursued its work in Moscow and beyond," Fenoglio added.

  • VOA News ☛ Azerbaijan detains two more journalists as watchdogs denounce crackdown

    Azerbaijani authorities detained two more journalists this week, bringing the number held in the past year to nearly two dozen.

  • The Nation ☛ How Journalists Can Stand Up to Trump’s Bluster

    CCNow is preparing a roster of activities to help our fellow journalists cope with this fast-moving crisis. A Talking Shop webinar will discuss how to cover the Trump administration’s actions, which veteran climate journalist Bill McKibben has summarized. And CCNow partner outlets can discuss our new initiative, The 89 Percent Project, at two partner town halls on February 11, at 11 am and 10 pm US EST.

  • CPJ ☛ Swedish public broadcaster SVT’s building vandalized

    Late Monday night, unidentified perpetrators threw red paint on SVT’s entrance and smashed a window, marking the fourth time the broadcaster was vandalized since last September.

  • Pivot to AI ☛ Amy is retiring! Probably!

    As much as I enjoy writing, it doesn’t pay enough for me as an independent journalist to keep it up anymore. I would prefer to spend my time traveling, reading books, watching films, and going to museums. So I am essentially retiring, probably!

  • Deseret Media ☛ White House says it will cancel $8M in Politico subscriptions

    Leavitt responded to a claim spreading on social media that Politico and the Associated Press have for years received millions of dollars from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have targeted by placing staff on leave. According to USASpending.gov., the payments represented the whole of the federal government's subscriptions to the news outlet's services. All federal agencies combined spent $8.2 million last year on Politico.

  • CPJ ☛ Azerbaijan jails 21st journalist in 15 months amid intensifying media crackdown

    “Shamshad Agha’s arrest underscores a grim intent by Azerbaijani authorities to silence and further restrict the country’s small and embattled independent media community,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Azerbaijan’s government should immediately reverse its unprecedented media crackdown and release Agha along with all other unjustly jailed journalists.”

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Ruben Schade ☛ People may want to join you, if you treat them well

    I apologise in advance both for the topic, and my disjointed thoughts here. But it’s something that’s been knawing at me for years, and especially again in light of recent events.

    My impression from reading a lot on history, and witnessing it first hand, is that push factors play into motivations and identity as much as pull factors.

    Take Ukraine. My Ukrainian friends have blood relations and deep East Slavic history with their Russian and Belarusian families across their shared border. But the unprovoked and unjustified rain of death brought on by a little man in the Kremlin ensures that any kind of cooperation between them is all but impossible, and will likely remain so for at least my lifetime. Nice one Putin, you fuckwit.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ RFK Jr Is Wrong. Health Care Is a Human Right.

    In his confirmation hearing, Robert F. Kennedy Jr told Bernie Sanders that he opposes health care as a human right. His reasoning reveals how libertarian talking points are being used to defend a cruel and irrational health care system.

  • The Register UK ☛ DOGE's Marko Elez resigns after problematic tweets surface

    The 25-year-old DOGE operative resigned Thursday after The Wall Street Journal asked the White House about his connection, if any, with problematic posts on Elon Musk's social network.

    It all stems from a C-programming-themed Twitter handle called @nullllptr that, according to the Murdoch-owed newspaper, had advocated for a "eugenic immigration policy," called for repealing the Civil Rights Act, and urged Silicon Valley to "normalize Indian hate."

  • The Verge ☛ DOGE staffer Marko Elez resigns after reporters uncover racist posts

    Marko Elez — the 25-year-old Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer who has reportedly been combing through the Treasury Department’s payment systems — resigned from his position after the Wall Street Journal uncovered an old social media account linked to him with numerous posts promoting racism and eugenics.

    “99% of Indian H1Bs will be replaced by slightly smarter LLMs, they’re going back don’t worry guys,” the user of the since-deleted X account @nullllptr posted in December, amid the H-1B debate that divided the tech-right. The account’s previous handle was @marko_elez, according to the Journal’s report.

    Other posts called for repealing the Civil Rights Act and reinstating a “eugenic immigration policy.”

  • Jamie Zawinski ☛ "Send. More. Cops."

    I feel like someone should be trying to connect the dots between "crime is at an all-time low" and "jail population has increased by 35%".

  • EDRI ☛ What are we looking for in our next Executive Director?

    The times and spaces in which we live are challenging and constantly changing. In this context, European Digital Rights (EDRi) offers an opportunity for visionary leadership and an assertive approach to defend and advance digital rights in Europe.

    Recently, we announced the opening for EDRi’s Executive Director. In this post we will provide more details about what kind of a profile and leadership style we’re seeking for this role in preparation for the information session we will host next week.

  • Techdirt ☛ Washington Cop With Odd Predilection For Seeing Knives And Shooting People In The Head Sentenced To 16 Years In Prison

    This is a cop who sees knives and starts shooting people in the head. In a normal world, his supervisors might have recognized a disturbing trend before it put the officer behind bars. In a normal world, the cop would have been told to explore other employment options after costing taxpayers $1.25 million for his first killing.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • [Repeat] EDRI ☛ CCC supports hackers facing legal battle with railway manufacturer

    EDRi member Chaos Computer Club (CCC) is backing three hackers targeted by Polish railway manufacturer Newag after they exposed anti-competitive practices at the 37th Chaos Communication Congress (37C3). In their 2023 presentation, the hackers revealed how Newag used geofencing and proprietary software to restrict repairs to its own workshops. By leveraging location data, geofencing enforces a virtual perimeter, allowing Newag to control where maintenance can take place and effectively limit independent repair options.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Techdirt ☛ Spam Emails, Spam Lawsuit: The GOP Tries To Break Gmail By Court Order

  In 1872 California enacted a law declaring that “every one who offers to the public to carry persons, property, or messages, excepting only telegraphic messages, is a common carrier of whatever he thus offers to carry.” In 2022 the Republican National Committee sued Google, alleging that, by shunting GOP fundraising emails into Gmail spam folders, it had violated this 150-year-old common-carrier law. A federal district court dismissed the complaint. The RNC took the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, where last month it submitted its opening brief.

• The Nation ☛ EU vs. US or People vs. Billionaires?

  We can organize across borders and oceans in many ways. The first priority should be to confront rising corporate power—itself no respecter of borders or national sovereignty—and also directly target the main drivers of the “surveillance capitalism” that messes with our brains and our politics, manipulates us, and atomizes us into disorganized “filter bubbles” that undercut our democratic ability and collective will to take on the global oligarchy.

  To understand how to influence the future, we must first understand history. And here lies a cautiously hopeful tale, of a decades-long tide of rising corporate power—and the early stirrings of a powerful reversal, just now getting underway.

• New York Times ☛ Amazon Reports 88% Rise in Profits but Says Growth Could Slow

  Sales from October through December hit $187.8 billion, up 10 percent from a year earlier. Profit rose 88 percent, to $20 billion. Both were roughly in line with Wall Street expectations.

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Companies Leading in Patent Counts [Ed: USPTO does not work for the US, it works for rich people, period; not even American rich people]

    Companies with the most published U.S. Patent Applications for January 2025: [...]

  • Commissioner for Patents Takes ‘Fork in the Road’ and Resigns from USPTO

    IPWatchdog has learned that Commissioner for Patents Vaishali Udupa has notified the United States Patent and Trademark Office that she is resigning effective immediately. Udupa has submitted her resignation in order to take advantage of the deferred resignation program —known as Fork in the Road— offered by President Donald J. Convicted Felon to federal workers in an email on January 28, 2025.

• Trademarks

  • Futurism ☛ Fans of the Actual Dogecoin Cryptocurrency Are Disgusted With Elon Musk's Antics

    As that drama has played out across the United States and the rest of the world, one particularly niche group has looked on with horror: early fans of Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency originally started to make fun of meme coins, but which spiked significantly in value after Musk became publicly obsessed with it, and has now become inextricably linked to Musk's legacy as he's organized his efforts with the Trump White House under a group called the Department [sicc] of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

• Copyrights

  • Public Domain Review ☛ Pied Beauty: Wari Tie-Dye Textiles (ca. 425–1100)

    Patchwork, tie-dye textiles comprising some of the most extraordinary examples of Andean fabric art known to us.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ 'Meta Torrented over 81 TB of Data Through Anna's Archive, Despite Few Seeders'

    Freshly unsealed court documents reveal that Meta downloaded significant amounts of data from shadow libraries through Anna's Archive. The company's use of BitTorrent was already known, but internal email communication reveals sources and terabytes of downloaded data, as well as a struggle with limited availability and slow download speeds due to a lack of seeders.

  • [Old] US Copyright Office ☛ Artificial Intelligence and Copyright [PDF]

    Over the last year, artificial intelligence (“AI”) systems and the rapid growth of their capabilities have attracted significant media and public attention. One type of AI, “generative AI” technology, is capable of producing outputs such as text, images, video, or audio (including emulating a human voice) that would be considered copyrightable if created by a human author.1 The adoption and use of generative AI systems by millions of Americans2—and the resulting volume of AI-generated material—have sparked widespread public debate about what these systems may mean for the future of creative industries and raise significant questions for the copyright system.3

    Some of these questions relate to the scope and level of human authorship, if any, in copyright claims for material produced in whole or in part by generative AI. Over the past several years, the Office has begun to receive applications to register works containing AI-generated material, some of which name AI systems as an author or co-author.4 At the same time, copyright owners have brought infringement claims against AI companies based on the training process for, and outputs derived from, generative AI systems.5 As concerns and uncertainties mount, Congress and the Copyright Office have been contacted by many stakeholders with diverse views. The Office has publicly announced a broad initiative earlier this year to explore these issues. This Notice is part of that initiative and builds on the Office’s research, expertise, and prior work, as well as information that stakeholders have provided to the Office.

  • [Old] US Copyright Office ☛ Copyright and Artificial Intelligence: Part 1: Digital Replicas [PDF]

    AI raises fundamental questions for copyright law and policy, which many see as existential. To what extent will AI-generated content replace human authorship? How does human creativity differ in nature from what AI systems can generate, now or in the future? What does this mean for the incentive-based foundation of the U.S. copyright system? In what ways can the technology serve as a valuable tool to amplify human creativity and ultimately promote science and the arts? How do we respect and reward human creators without impeding technological progress?

  • LOC ☛ Inside the Copyright Office’s Report, Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 2: Copyrightability

    Part 2: Copyrightability analyzes the type and level of human contribution sufficient for outputs created using generative AI to be eligible for copyright protection in the United States. It provides an overview of the technologies and discusses existing U.S. copyright laws, the policy implications of copyrighting AI-generated works, and whether legislative changes are needed. It also describes how other countries are approaching the question of copyrightability.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Bombshell Ruling on Global Music Copyright Termination Emerges

    But the ruling by the US District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana has upended this, concluding that a termination under US law applies globally. Resnik Music Group asserts the ruling will create chaos in the industry. “Copyright in each work [will be] dependent on its country of origin, rather than the orderly system that the nations of the world have in fact developed over more than a century, in which the applicable law is the law of the place ‘where protection is claimed.’” Vetter’s lawyers called Resnik’s claims a “novel theory” about copyright functionality, but agreed the Court’s ruling is the correct one under international law. Resnik’s lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the case back in July, arguing that ruling in Vetter’s favor would result in chaos.