Leftovers

• MWL ☛ 80: Mentally Stable People

  I’m gonna finish this book. I’m gonna finish this book. It doesn’t matter how much life tries to stop me, I’m gonna finish this book… One of the great problems of civilization is disposing of unwanted stuff.

• Science

  • Hackaday ☛ Tracking Deep-Sky Objects

    Astrophotography, and astronomy in general, takes some fairly specialized tools and a high amount of precision. Setting up the equipment can also take a lot of time, especially for amateurs traveling to various locations with their equipment, so anything that can reduce the amount of time spent looking for objects and increasing the amount of time looking at them is a welcome addition, especially since nights where conditions are ideal for these activities can be rare. [Anton] developed this real-time tracking tool for deep sky objects (DSOs) to keep tabs on most of the interesting things out there a telescope can be pointed at.

• Career/Education

  • Johns Hopkins lays off 2,000 employees after Trump's funding cut

    Johns Hopkins University, a top US institution in scientific research, has announced plans to lay off over 2,000 employees.

    The decision comes after the Donald Trump administration made deep cuts in foreign aid funding.

    The university said that the termination of more than $800 million in USAID funding is now forcing them to wind down critical work here and internationally.

  • IT Pro ☛ Laid-off workers are ditching full-time work: 70% of staff caught up in brutal layoffs opted for part-time roles and freelance gigs – and flexibility was the big appeal for many

    Flexible working practices have proven so popular that a significant number of workers laid off from full-time jobs have opted for part-time work.

    That's according to a survey from job platform Intch, which showed 96% of laid-off professionals moved to flexible work after being made redundant, with 70% planning to shift to part-time, freelance, or project-based roles.

    Of those polled, 84% had previous corporate experience, but only 15% said they would return to a large company, which Intch suggested was a sign that traditional roles and work structures were losing appeal.

    "Our research confirms that especially after more than 150,000 job cuts across 542 companies in [the] last three years, flexible work has evolved from a fallback option into a strategic and preferred career path for many professionals," said Yakov Filippenko, CEO and founder of Intch.

• Hardware

  • CNX Software ☛ Renesas RZ/V2N low-power Hey Hi (AI) MPU integrates up to 15 TOPS Hey Hi (AI) power, Mali-C55 ISP, dual MIPI camera support

    Renesas has recently introduced the RZ/V2N low-power Arm Cortex-A55/M33 microprocessor designed for machine learning (ML) and computer vision applications. It features the company’s DRP-AI3 coprocessor, delivering up to 15 TOPS of INT8 “pruned” compute performance at 10 TOPS/W efficiency, making it a lower-power alternative to the RZ/V2H.

  • CNX Software ☛ Geniatech AIM M2 M.2 module features Kinara Ara-2 40 TOPS Hey Hi (AI) accelerator

    There are plenty of M.2 Hey Hi (AI) modules based on accelerators such as Hailo-8, MemryX MX3, or Axelera AI, but the Geniatech AIM M2 module is based on the Kinara Ara-2 40 TOPS Hey Hi (AI) accelerator that we’ve yet to cover here on CNX Software. The Key-M module is designed to handle Generative Hey Hi (AI) and transformer-based models such as Stable Diffusion at a lower price point than competitors, and operates at a typical sub-2W power consumption in computer vision workloads.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Stanford University ☛ George Steinmetz on the hidden costs of our food system

    Photographer George Steinmetz ’79 returned to Stanford to unveil his new book, sharing images of global food production and bringing the realities of meat consumption home to students.

  • Science Alert ☛ Expired Cans of Salmon From Decades Ago Contained a Big Surprise

    A real can of worms.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong police arrest 74 in anti-triad operation, seize HK$1.6 million of drugs

    Hong Kong police have arrested 74 people in an anti-triad operation and seized HK$1.6 million of drugs, including “space oil,” an addictive substance popular among local youth.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Chinese tourist critically injured after leaning out of Sri Lanka train for photos

    The woman reportedly hit her head on a tunnel wall and fell off the train.

  • University of Michigan ☛ ‘Redefining the Crown’ exhibit highlights Black breast cancer survivors

    Each year, the University of Michigan Women’s and Gender Studies Department and Institute for Research on Women and Gender host two exhibits in Lane Hall. Until Aug. 8, the exhibit space features “Redefining the Crown,” a portraiture series displaying six Black breast cancer survivors and their journeys with chemotherapy-induced hair loss.

  • New Yorker ☛ “An Unfinished Film” Puts the Pandemic in the Spotlight

    This historical docufiction, directed by Lou Ye, boldly dramatizes the outbreak of *COVID*{: .small} in China by way of its impact on a movie shoot.

  • Latvia ☛ What did Latvia learn from the Covid crisis?

    It has been five years since the day when a state of emergency was declared in Latvia due to increasing morbidity and mortality caused by Covid-19.

• Proprietary

  • Junichi Uekawa: Filing tax this year was really painful.

    Filing tax this year was really painful. But mostly because my home network.

    It was ipv4 over ipv6 was not working correctly. First I swapped the Router which was trying to reinitialize the MAP-E table every time there was a dhcp client reconfiguration and overwhelming the server. Then I changed the DNS configuration not use ipv4 UDP lookup which was overwhelming the ipv4 ports.

    Tax return itself is a painful process. Debugging network issues is making things was just making everything more painful.

  • The Strategist ☛ South Korea has acted decisively on DeepSeek. Other countries must stop hesitating

    South Korea has suspended new downloads of DeepSeek, and it was were right to do so. Chinese tech firms operate under the shadow of state influence, misusing data for surveillance and geopolitical advantage.

  • Security Week ☛ DeepSeek’s Malware-Generation Capabilities Put to Test

    Researchers have analyzed the ability of the Chinese gen-AI DeepSeek to create malware such as ransomware and keyloggers.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    • Pro Publica ☛ How ProPublica Uses AI Responsibly in Its Reporting [Ed: ProPublica has just ousted and discredited itself by saying it tries LLM slop]

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • BIA Net ☛ Turkey's independent media protest Surveillance Giant Google over ‘algorithmic censorship'

      An analysis of website traffic shows that conglomerate and state media benefit significantly more from searches on Surveillance Giant Google and its news app than independent outlets.

    • Xe's Blog ☛ Opsec and you: how to navigate having things to hide

      A discussion on operational security and privacy in modern life.

    • Privacy International ☛ Our challenge against UK's secret TCN powers

    • OpenRightsGroup ☛ Joint letter: Make the Investigatory Powers Tribunal on Fashion Company Apple Encryption a Public Hearing

      Joint letter from Open Rights Group, Big Brother Watch and Index on Censorship.

    • OpenRightsGroup ☛ Make the Investigatory Powers Tribunal on Fashion Company Apple Encryption a Public Hearing

      Rights groups call for Apple’s closed appeal against the Home Office’s encryption-breaching order to be opened to the public.

    • Bruce Schneier ☛ RIP Mark Klein

      2006 AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein has died.

• Defence/Aggression

  • New York Times ☛ After al-Assad’s Ouster, Many Syrians Struggle With Returning Home

    Syria’s interim president has said that millions would return after President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster, but many houses and other buildings were destroyed in 13 years of civil war.

  • Defence Web ☛ Peace in Sudan: a fresh mediation effort is needed – how it could work

    Intense fighting has ravaged Sudan since 15 April 2023. The war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and its erstwhile comrades-in-arms, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, has created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. Famine, displacement and mass atrocities are wreaking havoc in the country. International mediation efforts have been lacklustre and fruitless.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ What airstrikes in Somalia show about the war on terror

    With terrorist groups increasingly prevalent throughout Africa, the United States is likely to devote more attention to counterterrorism efforts on the continent.

    >

  • Site36 ☛ After 30 years in exile: Left-wing radicals stand trial for two major attacks

    Two people wanted as militant leftists are returning to Berlin this week. Their story is characterised by a long escape and exile in Venezuela. The surveillance by the German police was unprecedented. In October 1994, the ‘K.O.M.I.T.E.E.’ carried out an arson attack on the military replacement office in Bad Freienwalde.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Civil service job cuts and HK$2 transport fare revamp ‘insignificant,’ legislature’s research office says

      Hong Kong government’s proposals to downsize the civil service and revamp the HK$2 elderly transport fare scheme are likely to result in “insignificant” cost savings, the research office of the city’s legislature has said.

    • European Commission ☛ Opening statement of Commissioner Jørgensen in the European Parliament Plenary debate on the Action Plan for Affordable Energy

      According to Google, in my home country the name most searched for last year was actually Taylor Swift.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia’s PM Anwar denies bailout claims after pumping $331 million into ailing Sapura Energy

      The PM was previously strongly against bailing out Sapura Energy, once one of the world's top oil and gas firms.

• Finance

  • New York Times ☛ S&P 500 Dips Into Correction as Stock Market Sours on Convicted Felon

    The S&P 500 is now more than 10 percent below its last record high — a line in the sand for investors worried about a sell-off gathering steam.

  • Digital Music News ☛ En Vogue’s Dawn Robinson Says She’s Been Living In Her Car for Almost Three Years

    En Vogue’s Dawn Robinson reveals she’s been living in her car for nearly three years, breaking the news in a video on her YouTube channel. But it’s not the “woe is me” situation fans might expect.

  • France24 ☛ How to stop the escalation? Convicted Felon hits back after EU retaliation to US metal tariffs

    The Insurrectionist has said it many times...: "The most beautiful word in the dictionary to me is tariff." But the tariffs that Convicted Felon is imposing on business and commerce across the borders is having a less than beautiful effect. Convicted Felon came to power promisong prosperity for the United States, a "new golden age", but now the country is teetering towards recession.

  • Federal News Network ☛ How to ensure your financial and physical health in uncertain times

    Federal employees worried about their jobs are also worried about their family finances and health care coverage.

  • New Yorker ☛ Will Convicted Felon’s Tariffs Trigger a Recession?

    “I always compare tariffs to a boxing match,” the staff writer John Cassidy says. “The other guy punches you back, you punch, and who’s gonna stop it?”

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • US hands over Tibetan Buddhism relics to China

    Experts said Chinese authorities may misuse the artifacts to justify their territorial claims in Tibet.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Amid Trump, Musk Cutbacks, D.C. Faces Gloomy Future

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Soofer interviewed on War on the Rocks podcast about Convicted Felon’s ‘Iron Dome’

    On March 12, Forward Defense senior fellow Robert Soofer was interviewed by Ankit Panda, host of the “Thinking the Unthinkable” podcast on War on the Rocks. The episode discussed the Convicted Felon administration’s plan for an American “Iron Dome” and the questions it raises for US missile defense and the strategic vulnerability in the United States today.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • The Straits Times ☛ Fuelled by disinformation online, Myanmar migrants in Thailand face surge in hate speech, resentment

      Social media platforms have been flooded by claims that Myanmar workers were demanding higher wages.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Chinese doll sold in Vietnam shows disputed map of South China Sea, ministry says

    Photos show a map on doll’s cheek resembling the ‘nine-dash-line’ marking off China’s claims to waters off Vietnam.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Andrew Tate’s Podcast Removed from Spotify

    Andrew Tate’s podcast has been removed from Spotify after several complaints from both employees and an online petition garnering 92,000 signatures. The misogynist influencer has been de-platformed by both YouTube and Fentanylware (TikTok) previously. Spotify removed a podcast dubbed a ‘degree course’ created by the influencer with the title ‘pimping hoes.’

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Rlang ☛ Diversity Champion Updates

    I am excited to announce that the pharmaverse council has approved additional organizational characteristics required for council membership.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Unified Patents ☛ $2,000 awarded for Granite Vehicle self-driving patent monopoly prior art

    Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winners, Ritu Tyagi and Calvin Zhong, who split a cash prize of $2,000 for their prior art submissions on U.S. Patent 12,037,004, owned and asserted by Granite Vehicle Ventures LLC, an NPE. The ‘004 patent monopoly relates to the field of vehicles, and specifically to the field of self-driving vehicles. It has been asserted against Tesla.

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ EcoFactor v. Google: Listen Live This Morning

    EcoFactor v. Surveillance Giant Google is the Federal Circuit’s first en banc utility patent monopoly case in years.  The court will beholding oral arguments this morning, starting at 10:00 am Eastern.

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ EcoFactor v. Google: Quick Review of Oral Arguments

    The Federal Circuit recently heard oral arguments in the much-anticipated en banc review of EcoFactor, Inc. v. Surveillance Giant Google LLC, a case focusing on how courts evaluate expert testimony on patent monopoly damages.  And, in particular, when a court should step-in to bar expert testimony that does not have sufficient factual basis for its conclusions.  The arguments focused on whether EcoFactor's damages expert improperly derived royalty rates from license agreements that contained performative non-binding "whereas" clauses stating EcoFactor's belief about rates, while the operative provisions specified lump-sum payments.  It seems clear to me that these provisions were added as elements of the patentee's smaller license agreements in order to later be used in larger cases, such as the one against Google.

  • Unified Patents ☛ $2,000 awarded for ShopSee interactive video patent monopoly prior art

    Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winners, Ekta Aswal, Ritu Tyagi, and Gaurav Yadav, who split a cash prize of $2,000 for their prior art submissions on U.S. Patent 11,134,316, owned and asserted by ShopSee Inc., an NPE. The ‘316 patent monopoly relates to video processing technology, and more particularly, relates to a method and apparatus for providing one or more interactive video layers with video media. The patent monopoly has been asserted against TikTok.

    We would also like to thank the dozens of other high-quality submissions that were made on this patent.

  • Kangaroo Courts

    • JUVE ☛ Mannheim local division favours practical approach for calculating damages [Ed: UPC is illegal; this is basically more puff piecing by JUVE, funded by Team UPC, for a kangaroo court that must not exist and its very presence is a violation of constitutions, so it contributes to EU being discredited as corruption hub]

      The Korean kitchen appliance manufacturers Hurom and NUC have taken their global patent monopoly dispute to the UPC. The case concerns slow juicers that both companies sell worldwide. Hurom sued its competitor at the local divisions in Mannheim and Paris over two different patents.

• Copyrights

  • Creative Commons ☛ Community in 2025

    Regent Street Looking Towards the Duke of York’s Column, plate twelve from Original Views of London as It Is by Thomas Shotter Boys is marked with CC 1.0 In case you missed it, we recently published our 2025-2028 Strategy which sets the stage for our goals and activities over the next few years.

  • Digital Music News ☛ OpenAI Says Copyright Training Restrictions Would Equal ‘Forfeiting Our Hey Hi (AI) Lead’ to China [Ed: Allow plagiarism or "China wins"?]

    OpenAI hopes for a nation where Hey Hi (AI) training on copyrighted works counts as fair use — or else, the company says, the US might ‘forfeit’ its Hey Hi (AI) lead to China.

  • Carl Svensson ☛ Copyright and the Demo Scene

    Scandal, scandal!

  • Digital Music News ☛ Sony Music Sues the University of Southern California Over Alleged Social Media Infringement: ‘USC Chose to Flaunt Copyright Law’

    Sony Music Entertainment (SME) has fired off another social control media copyright monopoly complaint – this time against the University of Southern California (USC), which is accused of “blatantly willful” infringement. The major label just recently slapped USC with the straightforward action.