Leftovers

• Eric Bailey ☛ Tag, you’re it

  With the gift of hindsight, I guess I came up being blog-adjacent. Like Dave, I also had a background in publishing as a youth.

  I worked for my high school newspaper, and had a part- and then later full-time job at my local newspaper. I also published a weirdo, monkey cheese nerd zine. Its main claims to fame were both pissing off the principal and preventing me from getting dates.

• Yordi Verkroost ☛ Bear Blog Question Challenge

  I recently remembered all the tag games that used to exist on other platforms. You’d get tagged and would answer a catalogue of questions regarding you or your favorite media, then tag others. I thought why not bring it here, even without a tag system? So I thought of a few blog-centric questions to start.

• Crooked Timber ☛ A curious tendency among Western philosophers?

  Okay, so: what distinguishes these two groups?

  Answer under the cut, but… stare at those two lists. Take a moment; give it a try. Do you see it?

• Science

  • Artyom Bologov ☛ Making Sense of Lambda Calculus 4: Applicative vs. Normal Order

    I'm slowly getting back to Lambda Calculus. I implemented my own compiler/toolkit for LC, and made my own programming language, Lamber so I can play with my standard library for LC and otherwise write non-trivial programs in this Turing tarpit.

    My BLC compiler uses Lisp-native lambdas compiled from s-expressions I generate from Binary Lambda Calculus code. Which is a verbose and obscure way to say: I just run Lisp instead of BLC. Which means I have restrictions on stack size. And most LC programs out there don't work—they imply normal order reduction instead of applicative order.

    Say what now? Normal? Applicative? What's that?

• Career/Education

  • CNET ☛ Is the Department of Education Being Abolished? What We Know Amid Mass Layoffs

    President Donald Trump has been talking about abolishing the Department of Education for a while, and now appears to be taking some steps towards that goal, laying off half of its workforce and sparking widespread concern about what this will all mean going forward.

    On March 11 it was announced that around 300,000 Department of Education workers, or roughly half of its total workforce, were being laid off by the Trump administration. Furthermore, leases were also reportedly terminated on the department's regional offices in places like Boston, Chicago, Cleveland and New York. Trump has cited the need to eliminate bloat and fraud within the federal government, but some laid-off workers speaking to USA Today countered that gutting the department could cause more "waste, fraud and abuse" to proliferate.

  • Jason Becker ☛ I guess I'm a Product Engineer

    But then the post ended with bullets about a Product Engineer, and it describes what I’ve been doing for the last decade: [...]

  • Idiomdrottning ☛ Employers hate extrinsic motivation

    But these days, saying “the reason for this job is the paycheck” has become taboo in the ears of the employers. It’s a quick way to get easily kicked out of a job interview. They want to be able to pretend that you think the job in and of itself is fun and good, that the embarrassing-for-all-parties bother of the paycheck is a mere inconvenience that should be abolished as soon as we all could get around to it.

  • Jim Nielsen ☛ Ecosystems vs. Artifacts: Don’t Break the Web

    Only as I grew older did I come to understand that an entire ecosystem of people, processes, tools, organizations, experience, storehouses of knowledge, and more made it possible to go to the moon. And you can’t just turn that back on with the flip of a switch.

    I was confusing the artifact (a human being on the moon) for the ecosystem that made it possible (NASA, contractors, government officials, technology, etc.)

• Hardware

  • Layoffs loom as Intel’s new CEO moves to fix slow decision-making and chip production

    Intel's incoming CEO Lip-Bu Tan has considered significant changes to its chip manufacturing methods and artificial intelligence strategies ahead of his return to the company on Tuesday, two people familiar with Tan's thinking told Reuters, in a sweeping bid to revive the ailing technology giant.

    The new trajectory includes restructuring the company's approach to AI and staff cuts to address what Tan views as a slow-moving and bloated middle management layer. Revamping the company's manufacturing operations, which at one time only made chips for Intel but have been repurposed to make semiconductors for outside clients such as Nvidia, is one of Tan's core priorities, these sources said.

  • Jason Burk ☛ Hey, it's Jason! // I Found a DAP

    Part of my music journey has been a hunt for a Digital Audio Player (DAP) for both on-the-go and purposeful listening. That hunt led me to look at the HiBy R3 II, then built a modded iPod, and finally, to what I believe is the right device for me right now: the Astell & Kern SR35 (I picked up a used one in a lovely purple for a great price).

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Verge ☛ Amazon is fighting the government’s efforts to get it to recall hazardous products

    The CPSC sued Amazon in 2021, claiming the company failed to properly recall tens of thousands of hazardous items, including flammable children’s pajamas and faulty carbon monoxide detectors. Though Amazon removed the products in question and sent notifications to buyers, the CPSC alleged it “downplayed the severity of the hazard.” The CPSC later reaffirmed an administrative law judge’s decision that Amazon is a distributor, making it responsible for carrying out recalls of third-party goods.

  • Wired ☛ DOGE [sic]’s Cuts at the USDA Could Cause US Grocery Prices to Rise and Invasive Species to Spread

    Dog trainers are just one example of the kind of highly specialized USDA staff that have been removed from their stations in recent weeks. Teams devoted to inspecting plant and food imports have been hit especially hard by the recent cuts, including the Plant Protection and Quarantine program, which has lost hundreds of staffers alone.

• Proprietary

  • The Washington Post ☛ How to protect your Gmail and Outlook after FBI warning

    If an email arrives promising a bonus you didn’t know you were receiving, you probably aren’t receiving it. Hackers use whatever is most likely to get clicks, so get familiar with some classic phishing lures, such as an “accidental” email from HR with an attachment titled “Companywide salaries.” Fake Amazon gift cards and DocuSign links are also popular, says Peter Quach, director of client relations at security firm Polito.

  • The Verge ☛ Google has a fix for all of the broken Chromecasts

    Google started rolling out an update on Thursday to fix Chromecasts that suddenly lost the ability to cast. Now, it also has a fix to take care of the ones that were unexpectedly bricked after an attempted factory reset.

  • The Register UK ☛ Celonis sues SAP, claiming it's gatekeeping customer data

    According to a complaint [PDF] filed in the Northern District of California, Celonis claims SAP has made it more difficult and expensive for third-party software companies such as Celonis to get hold of customer data stored in SAP's business software.

  • The Record ☛ 'Mora_001' ransomware gang exploiting Fortinet bug spotlighted by CISA in January

    Multiple researchers last week spotlighted the exploitation of CVE-2024-55591 and CVE-2025-24472 by a new ransomware group called Mora_001.

  • The Record ☛ Telegram CEO confirms leaving France amid criminal probe

    Durov was arrested at Le Bourget Airport outside Paris in August and charged with several violations related to cyber and financial crimes committed on Telegram.

    Following his arrest, Telegram stated that “it is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for the abuse of that platform,” adding that the company “abides by EU laws” and that “its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving.”

  • Mat Duggan ☛ Slack: The Art of Being Busy Without Getting Anything Done

    So what's the catch? Well I first noticed it on the train. My daily commute home through the Chicago snowy twilight used to be a sacred ritual of mental decompression. A time to sift through the day's triumphs and (more often) the screw-ups. What needed fixing tomorrow? What problem had I pushed off maybe one day too long?

    But as I got further and further into Slack, I realized I was coming home utterly drained yet strangely...hollow. I hadn't done any actual work that day.

  • Bitdefender ☛ Borked Chromecasts are beginning to receive their update - just hope you didn't do a factory reset

    There's good news on the horizon for Chromecast owners frustrated that their devices have stopped streaming and begun showing error messages instead: Google says it has started pushing out a fix.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    • Futurism ☛ Users Cheer as Microsoft Accidentally Removes Hated AI Feature From Windows 11

      Microsoft has "unintentionally uninstalled" its Copilot AI assistant app on some devices running its latest operating system Windows 11 — and users, strikingly, are rejoicing the temporary respite from the despised feature.

    • MacRumors ☛ Apple's Delayed Personalized Siri Features Are 'Working' to Some Extent

      While it may sound obvious that at least some of the features are now functional within Apple, this was not entirely clear, as the company has not shown any public demos of the features being in a working state. Apple now faces the task of ensuring that the features not only work, but work well, before making them available to customers. Walker reportedly said the features were only working "up to two-thirds to 80% of the time."

    • The Verge ☛ Leaked Apple meeting shows how dire the Siri situation really is

      Bloomberg has the full scoop on what happened at a Siri team meeting led by senior director Robby Walker, who oversees the division. He called the delay an “ugly” situation and sympathized with employees who might be feeling burned out or frustrated by Apple’s decisions and Siri’s still-lackluster reputation. He also said it’s not a given that the missing Siri features will make it into iOS 19 this year; that’s the company’s current target, but “doesn’t mean that we’re shipping then,” he told employees.

    • 9to5Mac ☛ Apple exec slams ‘ugly and embarrassing’ Siri delays in all-hands meeting

      The meeting was led by Robby Walker, a senior director of “Siri and Information Intelligence” at Apple. Walker has been at Apple since 2013, working across Siri technologies. During the meeting, Walker reportedly emphasized that “it’s unclear” when the promised Siri features will launch. This includes Siri with personal context, in-app actions, and on-screen awareness.

    • Matt Birchler ☛ You don’t need AI to play old games on modern hardware

      If I can be blunt, this is absolute bullshit. Think of any game you played as a kid and I can almost guarantee you that you can play that game today “across new devices and in new ways” today. This doesn’t need AI at all, it’s been happening for decades via emulation.

    • Om Malik ☛ Apple Intelligence: Fud, Dud or Both – On my Om

      It’s clear Apple must radically rethink its reason for being. Gruber is right when he says, “Something is rotten in the state of Cupertino.” He puts it best when he writes, “The fiasco is that Apple pitched a story that wasn’t true, one that some people within the company surely understood wasn’t true, and they set a course based on that.” Gruber has done a good job of explaining why.

      I have my own explanation, something my readers are familiar with, and it is the most obvious one. Just as Google is trapped in the 10-blue-link prison, which prevents it from doing something radical, Apple has its own golden handcuffs. It’s a company weighed down by its market capitalization and what the stock market expects from it.

    • 404 Media ☛ AI Slop Is a Brute Force Attack on the Algorithms That Control Reality

      Any of these Reels could have been and probably was made in a matter of seconds or minutes. Many of the accounts that post them post multiple times per day. There are thousands of these types of accounts posting thousands of these types of Reels and images across every social media platform. Large parts of the SEO industry have pivoted entirely to AI-generated content, as has some of the internet advertising industry. They are using generative AI to brute force the internet, and it is working.

  • Social Control Media

    • Hindustan Times ☛ Grenade-like object hurled at YouTuber’s house: Punjab Police restrict social media accounts of Pak-based gangster

      Police have already registered a case under section 109 (attempt to murder) of the BNS and other sections of the Explosives Act after they recovered an oval “metal” piece from the balcony on the second floor of Sandhu’s house.

    • The Verge ☛ Discord is plugging directly into games

      The new Social SDK, announced today, will let developers that use it offer “friends lists, cross-platform messaging, voice and more for all players — with or without a Discord account,” according to a press release. You’ll also be able to send invites to your friends while you’re in a game.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Techdirt ☛ ICE Has An Internet Surveillance Power Tool That Keeps Tabs On More Than 200 Websites

      ICE has utilized a variety of tech tools to accomplish massive amounts of surveillance, ranging from purchasing location data from third-party data brokers to helping itself to utility bill databases to help it hunt down undocumented immigrants.

      The latest collect-it-all tech being utilized by ICE continuously harvests and collates data and communications pulled from dozens of social media services and websites, as Joseph Cox reports for 404 Media.

    • The Register UK ☛ Filing: DOGE [sic] broke Treasury policy with unencrypted email

      That filing pertains to a February lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James and 18 other state AGs challenging DOGE [sic]'s access to the Treasury Department's Bureau of Fiscal Services (BFS), which disburses trillions of dollars annually to US households, federal employees, and contractors including Social Security and Medicare benefits, tax credits, and grants and payments.

    • Scoop News Group ☛ DOGE [sic] staffer violated security policies at Treasury Department, court filing shows

      A staffer for the Department [sic] of Government Efficiency (DOGE) violated security policies at the Treasury Department by improperly sharing sensitive personal information outside the agency, according to a court filing.

    • Adriaan Roselli ☛ CSUNATC 2025 Recap

      Close-up of my badge with the QR code visible, colored over in red so the black QR code is still visible but the contrast is terrible. I also added white over it in my photo app. What made it more frustrating was that, as Chancey noted, while I had opted out of vendor emails, vendor bouncers still insisted on scanning my badge. Even after I colored over it with a Sharpie (which meant I couldn’t share it with, say, Andrew Hedges when I wanted to, which makes Pat’s idea compelling). I had to threaten to block all emails from their entire domain before they backed down.

  • Confidentiality

    • Dhole Moments ☛ Post-Quantum Cryptography Is About The Keys You Don’t Play - Dhole Moments

      Post-Quantum Cryptography is coming. But in their haste to make headway on algorithm adoption, standards organizations (NIST, IETF) are making a dumb mistake that will almost certainly bite implementations in the future.

      Sophie Schmieg wrote about this topic at length and Filippo Valsorda suggested we should all agree to only use Seeds for post-quantum KEMs. You can read their words and come to the same conclusion as what I’ve written here, but I thought this was important enough to write about–if, for no other reason, to make some cryptographer shitposts make more sense to everyone else. (Nobody likes to feel excluded from inside jokes, after all!)

    • Bruce Schneier ☛ Improvements in Brute Force Attacks

      Attacks always get better; they never get worse. None of these is practical yet, and they might never be. But there are certainly more optimizations to come.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Axios ☛ After Trump DEI order, Navajo Code Talkers disappear from military websites

    Why it matters: From 1942 to 1945, the Navajo Code Talkers were instrumental in every major Marine Corps operation in the Pacific Theater of World War II.

    They were critical to securing America's victory at Iwo Jima.

    [...]

    At Iwo Jima, six Code Talkers sent more than 800 messages without any errors.

  • YLE ☛ Finnish Coast Guard notes uptick in ships concealing their location

    The situation is likely related to circumventing Russian sanctions, as some ships want to conceal their location from international authorities, according to the Coast Guard.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Is a TikTok Deal Happening By April 5? — White House Expects So

    At least one White House official says while the framework may be in place by April 5, there may be additional work needed after the deadline. Neither TikTok nor ByteDance have responded for requests for comment. Citing anonymous sources, Politico reports that the White House is in discussion with Oracle on a deal that would give the company oversight of TikTok’s U.S. data. The agreement would also keep ByteDance’s algorithm in place.

  • Sightline Media Group ☛ The P-51 Mustang and the man who won the World War II air war with it

    Hitchcock was stunned. The performance of the P-51, when fitted with a British Merlin engine, could “go as fast and as far as the bombers without losing its fighting characteristics,” historian Donald Miller wrote. It was, he noted, “the plane the Bomber Mafia had claimed was impossible to build.”

  • New York Times ☛ Elon Musk’s Starlink Expands Across White House Complex

    It was not immediately clear when the White House complex was fitted with Starlink after President Trump took office for a second term.

    Starlink terminals, rectangular panels that receive internet signals beamed from SpaceX satellites in low-Earth orbit, can be placed on physical structures. But instead of being physically placed at the White House, the Starlink system is now said to be routed through a White House data center, with existing fiber cables, miles from the complex.

  • Michigan Advance ☛ University of Michigan provost’s home vandalized and graffitied with pro-Palestine messaging

    Several high-ranking U of M officials have been the victims of vandalism at their homes or places of work since the October 7, 2023 surprise attack by Hamas on Israel that led to 1,200 deaths and the kidnapping of about 250 individuals. Israel’s subsequent war on Hamas in Gaza left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and an estimated $18.5 billion in infrastructure damage before a ceasefire was reached in January.

  • University of Michigan ☛ Pro-Palestine graffiti, broken window found at provost’s residence

    The Ann Arbor Police Department is investigating an act of malicious destruction of property, including a broken window and pro-Palestine graffiti, that occurred early Sunday morning at the home of University of Michigan Provost Laurie McCauley.

  • NDTV ☛ "Hamas Never Stopped Digging": Ex Hostage's Big Revelation On Gaza Tunnels

    The network, named the "Gaza metro" by the Israeli military, is estimated to be around 560 - 720 km long, with approximately 5,700 separate shafts leading down to the tunnels. It is believed to stretch across the Gaza Strip.

  • India Times ☛ TikTok becomes a tool of choice in cat-and-mouse game between migrant smugglers and authorities

    At a time when legal pathways to the US have been slashed and criminal groups are raking in money from migrant smuggling, social media apps like TikTok have become an essential tool for smugglers and migrants alike. The videos - taken to cartoonish extremes - offer a rare look inside a long elusive industry and the narratives used by trafficking networks to fuel migration north.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ To improve its Sahel policy, the US must update four assumptions

    US policy toward the Sahel has rested on these four unspoken assumptions, all of which must be updated if Washington aims to help stabilize the region and improve its standing there.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • The Dissenter ☛ Dissenter Weekly: Trump's Secrecy Regime

  • Papers Please ☛ FinCen demands reporting of cash transactions over $200

    The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the US Department of the Treasury has ordered all money transfer agencies and currency exchanges in seven counties in California and Texas along the US-Mexico border to file reports with FinCEN including the identities of the customers engaging in all cash transactions over $200.

    Implicit in this order is that would-be customers who are unable or unwilling to provide sufficient evidence of their identity (and to allow that information and the details of their transaction to be passed on to FinCEN) will be denied these financial services.

    The Geographic Targeting Order published by FinCEN in the Federal Register last Friday is effective for transactions with financial services businesses in those counties from April 14, 2025, through September 9, 2025. The Bank Secrecy Act, which authorizes such orders, limits them to 180 days but allows them to be renewed an unlimited number of times.

  • TruthOut ☛ Calls Grow for Probe as Reports Say Musk’s Starlink Will Do Business With FAA

    The letter, sent by Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) cites coverage from The Washington Post, which in late February reported that the FAA was considering canceling a $2.4 billion Verizon contract to upgrade the FAA’s communication system “that serves as the backbone of the nation’s air traffic control system” and award the work to Starlink, citing unnamed sources.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • BBC ☛ Mürren: The stunning car-free village reached by cable car

      For most of Mürren's history, residents would lead their mules three hours down to gather essential supplies in the valley before trekking back up. Then in 1891, a narrow-gauge railway opened, connecting Mürren to the nearby mountain village of Grütschalp and a funicular that reached Lauterbrunnen. In 1965, a single-track cableway opened that could ferry residents down to another traffic-free village, Gimmelwald, above the valley.

      But the day I arrived, this formerly secluded 430-person hamlet perched 1638m in the Bernese Oberland became directly connected with the outside world and valley below through the opening of the world's steepest cable car: the Schilthornbahn, which whisks travellers 775m up through some of the Swiss Alps' most jaw-dropping scenery in just four minutes.

    • CS Monitor ☛ Fish in space, solar-grazing sheep, and homegrown publishing

      With solar grazing, livestock feed in places on a solar farm that can’t easily be reached – reducing reliance on gas-powered lawn mowers. In turn, ranchers charge for the services of their livestock on solar farms, land they otherwise would not be able to access.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Revelator ☛ Russia’s Ukraine Invasion Causes a Deadly Oil Spill on the Black Sea

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ Creative Technology cuts workforce, adding to global wave of tech layoffs

    Home-grown electronics firm Creative Technology has retrenched about 40 staff, or 14 per cent of its workforce, as the tech layoff wave continues its rampage, The Straits Times has learnt.

    Confirming the layoffs, a company spokesman said: “Creative Technology has undertaken a decision to restructure parts of its business to adapt to the evolving market conditions. As part of this transformation, it had to undergo a staff retrenchment exercise.”

    The spokesman, however, declined to confirm the number of affected staff, and whether they are all located in Singapore.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • rootCompute ☛ I'm Afraid to Die, so I Made a Website

    Society has become a distorted mirror image of what it was supposed to be, yet everybody goes on like nothing happened. Traditional avenues on the way to self-actualization have been stripped for their parts, or were merely illusions to begin with. Institutions that people relied on for generations have become hostile toward those who need them today. I've come to the realization that I am seen as nothing more than a node of value to be extracted from and disposed of.

  • Deccan Chronicle ☛ Apple To Start Production of Airpods At Foxconn's Hyderabad Plant from April

    Airpods will be the second product category that Apple will start producing in India after iPhones.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ "Secret Pirate Site Raids" Set for 20:15 & 21:15 Sunday, Invited Journalists Report

    The big football match between Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille should've been extremely difficult to pirate in France on Sunday. With rare direct assistance from French telecoms regulator Arcom, DAZN promised to "pull out all the stops" to block pirate sites. Journalists invited in to witness planning for the "secret commando raids" openly reported the exact times they were scheduled for.

  • The Register UK ☛ UK government to open £16B IT services competition

    UK government is set to crack open the pork barrel for up to £16 billion in contracts for a range of IT services. The buying framework was delayed by six months and the total pot of spending is now potentially 25 percent bigger than the previous proposal.

  • The Register UK ☛ Euro techies call for sovereign fund to escape US dependency

    In an open letter to EC President Ursula von der Leyen and Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty Henna Virkkunen, the group of nearly 100 organizations proposed the creation of a sovereign infrastructure fund to invest in key technology and lessen dependence on US corporations.

    The letter points to recent events, including the farcical Munich Security Conference, as a sign of "the stark geopolitical reality Europe is now facing," and says that building strategic autonomy in key sectors is now an urgent imperative for European countries.

  • Nicholas Tietz-Sokolsky ☛ Who are your teammates?

    If you manage a team, who are your teammates? If you're a staff software engineer embedded in a product team, who are your teammates?

    The answer to the question comes down to who your main responsibility lies with. That's not the folks you're managing and leading. Your responsibility lies with your fellow leaders, and they're your teammates.

  • Bert Hubert ☛ But how to get to that European cloud?

    This means it’s time for industrial policy, which requires politics to be proficient in “industry.” Such proficiency is the only way to develop policies and plans that don’t go off the rails (which, unfortunately, can happen in many ways).

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Techdirt ☛ Automated ‘Pravda’ Propaganda Network Retooled To Embed Pro-Russian Narratives Surreptitiously In Popular Chatbots

      The quantity of material and the rate of posting on the Pravda network of sites is notable. ASP estimates the overall publishing rate of the network is around 20,000 articles per 48 hours, or more than 3.6 million articles per year. You would expect a propaganda network to take advantage of automation to boost its raw numbers. But ASP has noticed something odd about these new Web pages: “The network is unfriendly to human users; sites within the network boast no search function, poor formatting, and unreliable scrolling, among other usability issues.”

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Bryan Lunduke ☛ Lunduke Threatened if He Attended SXSW

    "Watch your back Fascist", "You are complicit in genocide, we know where youll be, see you there".

  • Techdirt ☛ The FTC Wants More Control Over Online Speech. That’s A Big Problem

    The FTC has based its investigation of “tech censorship” on a belief that tech companies are intentionally restricting access of individual users to their platforms, based on the content of the users’ posts or their affiliations. In the words of the press release, the FTC pointedly seeks information on “how this conduct may have violated the law.” As the FTC moves forward, it should be careful not to base its decisions on unverifiable reports, to the detriment of the digital economy that has been responsible for tremendous American innovation and growth.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ Column: The Trump administration has a free-speech problem

    And in Trump’s view, that corruption is exacerbated by an equally “really corrupt” media that pressures judges to rule against him. Dubbing the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN and “MSDNC” as “fake news,” he explained that “what they do is illegal.”

    [...]

    Spoiler: It’s legal.

  • TruthOut ☛ Trump Threatens Media, Opponents With Legal Action in DOJ Speech

    This marks an escalation in Trump’s attacks on media outlets that negatively cover his administration. While Trump has routinely dismissed unfavorable coverage as “fake news” and labeled journalists as the “enemy of the people,” his hostility toward the press has escalated significantly during his second term. “These newspapers are really no different than a highly paid political operative. And it has to stop. It has to be illegal … it just cannot be legal,” Trump continued.

  • The Verge ☛ Shoppers are flocking to AI search | The Verge

    The report says AI search referrals surged 1,300 percent during the 2024 holiday season compared to 2023, with Cyber Monday seeing a 1,950 percent jump. While these are dramatic increases, it’s somewhat expected, since AI search was still in its nascency last year.

  • BIA Net ☛ Turkey blocks access to websites of major alcohol brands

    Unlike country-specific sites tailored for the Turkish market, the blocked websites were the brands’ global platforms. These websites typically require users to verify their age before accessing content. Until now, website restrictions of this kind had not been implemented.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • RFERL ☛ EU To Look Into RFE/RL Funding As Europe Slams Cuts

    A diplomatic source with knowledge of the discussion told RFE/RL that the Czechs, along with Poland and the three Baltic countries -- Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania -- immediately expressed support for the idea saying a halt in RFE/RL's operations would "be a gift to Europe's adversaries" and its dissolution would be "irreparable for democratic aspirations around the world."

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Trump freezes Voice of America and Radio Free Asia

    “The Iranian ayatollahs, Chinese communist leaders, and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the demise of RFE/RL after 75 years,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty President Stephen Capus said in a statement.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ US President Trump begins mass layoffs at Voice of America

    President Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday began mass layoffs at Voice of America and other US-funded media, making clear its intent to gut outlets long seen as critical for US influence.

  • The Moscow Times ☛ ‘Today We Celebrate’: Kremlin and Russian Propaganda Rejoice as Trump Guts RFE/RL, VOA - The Moscow Times

    Two current and two former Russian officials told The Moscow Times that these outlets’ reporting had created serious problems for Kremlin propaganda, damaging Moscow’s influence in the post-Soviet region.

    Trump’s administration over the weekend started laying off staff at VOA and other broadcasters including RFE/RL after freezing their funding.

  • The Independent UK ☛ Voice of America journalists sound off on ‘betrayal’ after Trump dismantles broadcaster

    With the state-funded broadcaster — which has been seen as a vital part of America’s soft diplomacy — going largely silent after more than 80 years on the air, VOA journalists and executives are sounding off over what they see as a “betrayal of the ideals” that drove the organization, adding that it will only be “celebrated” by America’s adversaries.

  • CPJ ☛ ‘Reward to dictators’: CPJ stands with thousands of journalists harmed by Trump’s dismantling of VOA, Radio Free outlets

    “This suffocation of independent media is already putting the lives of journalists – who have often withstood enormous challenges to bring news to millions living in censored countries – in grave danger,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “It is really dystopian that the U.S. administration is now posing an existential threat to these historical organizations. We express our solidarity with the journalists put on administrative leave and urge congressional leaders to restore USAGM before irreparable harm is done.”

  • Dan Q ☛ Voice of America

    In light of Trump’s attempts to axe Voice of America, because it is, he claims, “anti-Trump” (and because he’s so insecure that he can’t stand the thought that taxpayer dollars might go to anybody who disagrees with him in any way, for any reason), I’ve produced a suggested update to the rules of Twilight Struggle for the inevitable 9th printing: [...]

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • RFERL ☛ These Iranian Women Sang In Public. They Were Arrested, Questioned, Or Banned Online

    [...] another, whose appearance without a hijab went viral, was arrested and is still unaccounted for.

  • Energy Mix Productions Inc ☛ Climate Change is Driving a Surge in Child Marriage

    This social evil is driven by gender inequality, poverty, and unequal access to education and healthcare—all of which are worsened by climate change.

    The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals aim to end child marriage by 2030, but the increasing frequency of climate-related disasters threatens to make this goal nearly impossible. Four of the five countries with the highest rates of child marriage—Niger, Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, and Mali—are also among the top ten most climate-vulnerable countries.

  • RFERL ☛ Iran Steps Up Crackdown On Female Singers

    Since the 1979 revolution, women in Iran have been banned from singing solo in public. But despite the restrictions, many female artists have turned to social media to share their voices—often defying both the singing ban and the country’s strict hijab laws.

    Among them is Golsa Rahimzamani, whose Instagram account was banned following an order by Iran’s Cyber Police. Reyhanoo, another singer, also had her page removed, while Bita Hajisadeghian, a singer and music teacher, was summoned by authorities in Isfahan and accused of “harming public decency and publishing indecent work.”

  • India ☛ 65 Years After the Tibet Uprising, China’s Crackdown on Free Speech and Culture Grows More Severe

    The roots of Tibet’s oppression can be traced back to 1951 when China coerced Tibetan leaders into signing the 17-Point Agreement, a document that Beijing falsely portrays as Tibet’s "peaceful liberation." According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), the agreement was imposed under the threat of full-scale military invasion, leaving Tibet with no real autonomy. After the occupation of eastern Tibet’s provincial capital, China on 23 May 1951, forced Tibet to sign the 17-point Agreement.

    China quickly violated its promises, imposing draconian policies that stripped Tibetans of their religious freedom, linguistic rights, and cultural heritage. By 1959, Tibetans had had enough. Thousands took to the streets in Lhasa, but Beijing responded with overwhelming force, killing thousands and tightening its grip on the region. Today, Tibet remains one of the most restricted places in the world, where even the mildest criticism of the government can result in arrest, imprisonment, or forced disappearances.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • IT Wire ☛ iTWire - Nokia to upscale Vodafone Idea’s IP backhaul network in India

    Indian mobile operator Vodafone Idea has selected telecoms equipment vendor Nokia to expand its IP backhaul network, under a three-year agreement.

  • RIPE ☛ How Cloud Edge Infrastructure Improves Round-Trip Time

    In this work, we investigate the improvements in network latency across six European countries - Germany, Finland, Poland, Bulgaria, Greece, and Czechia - when leveraging cloud edge infrastructure. Using ping measurements from RIPE Atlas, we analyse the impact of cloud edge solutions provided by three major cloud providers: Amazon, Azure, and Google. Our results demonstrate that cloud edge infrastructure significantly reduces network latency in all selected countries, with the most substantial improvements observed in regions without local cloud regions, such as Greece, Bulgaria, and Czechia.

  • Rolling Stone ☛ Outgoing Broadband Chief Issues Stark Warning Against Elon Musk

    An outgoing Commerce Department official in charge of expanding rural broadband authored an email to colleagues warning that the Trump administration is preparing to further enrich billionaire Elon Musk by diverting money for rural broadband to Musk’s satellite [Internet] company.

    “Stranding all or part of rural America with worse [Internet] so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” wrote Evan Feinman, director of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, in an email to colleagues obtained by Politico. BEAD is a $42.5 billion program created by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • The Verge ☛ Roku tests customer patience with startup video ads

    The reaction among customers, as you might imagine, is overwhelmingly negative. It’s worth remembering that Roku makes the bulk of its revenue from advertising — not bargain-bin priced streaming hardware. But just like Amazon before it, Roku is discovering that it’s easy to turn the ads dial too far. It’s possible to exit out of the ad after it starts, but that hasn’t done much to quell the frustration.

  • Android Police ☛ Roku's new ads are egregious even by smart TV standards

    Love ads? Then has Roku got a treat for you! The company's latest trick involves serving unskippable ads to some users the moment they start their television .

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Piracy Liability Lawsuit Against WOW! Survives Dismissal Attempt

    These types of lawsuits resulted in multi-million dollar judgments against Cox and Grande; a fate WOW hopes to avoid. The ISP challenged the claims and filed a motion to dismiss the case early on, arguing that the allegations fall short.

  • The Register UK ☛ This one weird trick can make online publishing faster, safer, more attractive, and richer

    The universe ended unexpectedly on a March Monday in 2025. To the relief of many, it came back a few days later much as before, but with one very significant change. One that may herald significant changes for all of us, inside its sphere or not.

    This universe, in particular, is Universe Today, a space news website a good quarter-century old published by Fraser Cain. Over that time, it has sprouted podcasts and a YouTube channel with nearly half a million subscribers. It has a team of expert writers and production staff, runs interviews with actual researchers about all manner of space science and events, and is highly regarded. In short, it's doing the sort of science journalism that seems most under threat in today's turgid political and anti-factual times. It is a very good thing.

  • Soylent News ☛ OpenAI Wants All The Data And For US Law To Apply Everywhere - SoylentNews