Leftovers

• Ruben Schade ☛ #Japan2025 Around Jinbōchō and Akihabara

  Yesterday was our first full day in Japan again! It was so much fun getting back into the routine of konbinis, train station jingles, wanderings, and spontaneity. It really hits different to anywhere else in the world, a fact I’m sure you don’t find shocking. The urban landscape of Japan is endlessly fascinating, though I’m just as much looking forward to the more rural parts of the trip too.

  Alas, while my stomach bug was in remission, it was still very much a fixture of the day. Food is the other major reason one goes to Japan, but fortunately the convenience stores and pharmacies had a bunch of electrolyte drinks and meal replacement jellies I could eat. Those CalorieMate bikkies were a godsend; they’re like shortbread, but are easy to digest and fill you up.

• NYPost ☛ Ellen DeGeneres shares double rainbow pic from her new Cotswolds home after ditching the US for England

  "3 things that make me happy. My Wife. A Rainbow. And my wife taking a photograph of a Rainbow."

• NYPost ☛ Army suspends Col. Sheyla Baez Ramirez after Convicted Felon, Vance, Hegseth photos vanish from chain of command board

  She had served as chief of the Reserve Program, United States Army Intelligence and Security Command at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and in other roles throughout the Army and Army Reserves.

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ NASA Reveals Stunning Closeup of Bizarre-Looking Asteroid

    "Strikingly complicated geology."

  • Science Alert ☛ Agencies Are Making Plans to Catch Rocks From Other Solar Systems

    Visitors from beyond.

  • Science Alert ☛ Owl Wings Glow Pink And It Could Be Sending a Secret Message

    Who?

• Career/Education

  • France24 ☛ Harvard University sues Convicted Felon administration to stop US federal funding cuts

    Harvard University filed a federal lawsuit against the Convicted Felon administration on Monday to stop billions of dollars in proposed cuts. The suit comes after the elite research institution rejected a list of White House demands that it said would undermine its independence. Dihydroxyacetone Man has launched a broad attack on funding for major universities as he seeks to rid them of what he describes as antisemitism and ideological bias.

  • New York Times ☛ Harvard Sues Convicted Felon Administration Over Threats to Cut Funding

    Harvard’s lawsuit comes after the administration sought to force the university to comply with a list of demands by cutting billions in federal funding the school receives.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ Jolly Wrencher Down To The Micron

    RepRap was the origin of pushing hobby 3D printing boundaries, and here we see a RepRap scaled down to the smallest detail. [Vik Olliver] over at the RepRap blog has been working on getting a printer working printing down to the level of micron accuracy.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Logitech prices are increasing by as much as 25%, and they're not alone

    YouTuber Cameron Dougherty of the channel Cameron Dougherty Tech has reported proof of Logitech price increases that have reached as high as 25%.

  • Hackaday ☛ PoX: Super-Fast Graphene-Based Flash Memory

    Recently a team at Fudan University claimed to have developed a picosecond-level Flash memory device (called ‘PoX’) that has an access time of a mere 400 picoseconds. This is significantly faster than the millisecond level access times of NAND Flash memory, and more in the ballpark of DRAM, while still being non-volatile. Details on the device technology were published in Nature.

  • Hackaday ☛ Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Part Picker

    If you do a lot of 3D computer work, I hear a Spacemouse is indispensable. So why not build a keyboard around it and make it a mouse-cropad?

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ TSMC says it cannot guarantee that its chips don't end up in China

    In its annual report, TSMC acknowledged it cannot fully track how its chips are ultimately used, highlighting ongoing risks of unintentional export control violations.

  • Hackaday ☛ Trekulator: A Reproduction Of The 1977 Star Trek Themed Calculator

    A recent project over on Hackaday.io from [Michael Gardi] is Trekulator – Where No Maker Has Gone Before.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • New York Times ☛ Pope Francis Had Health Issues That Increase Stroke Risk

    The declaration of death said the pope had Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, along with bronchiectasis, a chronic lung condition.

  • At-home monitoring of high-risk patients shows promise

    A U-M study found that hospitalizations dropped by 59% among high-risk patients in the following six months after they took part in a remote patient monitoring program while at home.

  • Stanford University ☛ Experts call for action on indoor air quality standards at inaugural summit

    At Stanford’s inaugural Forum on Sustainable and Healthy Buildings, experts from public health, engineering and industry argued for clean indoor air as a public health necessity.

  • New York Times ☛ South Korean Police Seek Arsonist After Deadly Seoul Fire

    The fire in a 21-story building in southern Seoul killed one person and injured several others, two of them seriously.

  • Science Alert ☛ Differences in Our Mouth Spray Could Contribute to Infection 'Super Spreaders'

    More like super spitters.

  • Science Alert ☛ 'Neuromyths' Distort Our Concept of The Human Brain, Study Finds

    This can have serious implications.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Trump Laid Off Nearly All the Federal Workers Who Investigate Firefighter Deaths

    When a firefighter dies in the line of duty, a small team of federal health workers is often called on to pinpoint what went wrong and identify how to avoid similar accidents in the future.

    That’s what happened after two firefighters died in California in 2020 while searching for an elderly woman in a burning library. It happened in 2023 when a Navy firefighter died in Maryland after a floor collapsed in a burning home. And it happened last year in Georgia when a career battalion chief died after a semitrailer truck exploded.

  • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

    • Air Force Times ☛ Thousands of military families use child care app devised by airman

      Kinderspot allows parents to sublet their child care spaces at Air Force child development centers when they’re away for vacation or other reasons, connecting them to other eligible Department of Defense families who need the child care.

• Proprietary

  • Bryan Lunduke ☛ Leaked Video: Adobe CEO & CPO Announce Ending DEI Policies

    "We have never hired based on quotas...

  • XDA ☛ These 7 WSL programs changed how I use Windows [Ed: WSL is not Linux but an attack on it. This is dangerous advice.]

  • Microsoft rolling out ‘new and enhanced tools’ to cull low performers [Ed: It's a lot worse]

    Key takeaways from a recent memo sent by the Amy Coleman, the tech giant’s chief people officer, include:

    A new “Rewards” system designed to help managers make decisions that align with Microsoft’s high-performance expectations. Giving low performers the option to participate in a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) or accept a voluntary severance package. Staff with zero or 60 per cent “Rewards outcomes” (or are actively participating in a PIP) will not be eligible for internal transfers. Workers who leave the company with zero or 60 per cent “Rewards outcomes” will face a two-year rehire ban.

  • Microsoft has updated its employee performance policy. Among the changes is a two-year ban on rehiring unproductive professionals.

    Business Insider reviewed this letter and published its full contents.

    Microsoft will change its approach to firing those who perform poorly, and will also ban such employees from being transferred within the company or hired for two years.

    Many technology companies have become tougher on their employees over the past year.

    For example, Mark Zuckerberg targeted low-performing employees when he cut thousands of jobs at Meta earlier this year . And, similar to Microsoft's new policy, Meta is blacklisting laid-off employees to prevent them from being rehired by the company.

  • Business Insider ☛ Internal Microsoft email to managers details new policies aimed at culling low performers

    Microsoft is adding policies meant to enhance performance management and address low performers.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Jim Nielsen ☛ “I Don’t See Why Not”

      Excuse my rant.

      Nobel-prize winning CEO of DeepMind, Demis Hassabis, was on 60 Minutes and floored me when he predicted:

      We can cure all diseases with the help of AI. [The end of disease] is within reach, maybe within the next decade or so. I don't see why not.

      “I don’t see why not” is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

      As I’m sure you know from working on problems, “I don’t see why not” moments are usually followed by, “Actually this is going to be a bit harder that we thought…”

• Security

  • Trail of Bits ☛ Jumping the line: How MCP servers can attack you before you ever use them

    This post is about a vulnerability in the Model Context Protocol (MCP) called “Line Jumping,” where malicious servers can inject prompts through tool descriptions to manipulate Hey Hi (AI) model behavior without being explicitly invoked, effectively bypassing security measures designed to protect users.

  • Security Week ☛ North Korean Cryptocurrency Thieves Caught Hijacking Zoom ‘Remote Control’ Feature

    North Korean cryptocurrency thieves abusing Zoom Remote collaboration feature to target cryptocurrency traders with malware.

  • SANS ☛ It's 2025... so why are obviously malicious advertising URLs still going strong, (Mon, Apr 21st)

  • LWN ☛ Security updates for Monday

    Security updates have been issued by Debian (erlang, fig2dev, shadow, wget, and zabbix), Fedora (chromium, jupyterlab, llama-cpp, prometheus-podman-exporter, python-notebook, python-pydantic-core, rpki-client, rust-adblock, rust-cookie_store, rust-gitui, rust-gstreamer, rust-icu_collections, rust-icu_locid, rust-icu_locid_transform, rust-icu_locid_transform_data, rust-icu_normalizer, rust-icu_normalizer_data, rust-icu_properties, rust-icu_properties_data, rust-icu_provider, rust-icu_provider_macros, rust-idna, rust-idna_adapter, rust-litemap, rust-ron, rust-sequoia-openpgp, rust-sequoia-openpgp1, rust-tinystr, rust-url, rust-utf16_iter, rust-version-ranges, rust-write16, rust-writeable, rust-zerovec, rust-zip, uv, and webkitgtk), Slackware (libxml2 and zsh), SUSE (argocd-cli, chromium, coredns, ffmpeg-6, and firefox), and Ubuntu (imagemagick).

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Scoop News Group ☛ Judge limits evidence about NSO Group customers, victims in damages trial

      The ruling strikes at NSO Group’s fundamental strategy in the case, one observer noted.

    • Silicon Angle ☛ Paul Graham criticizes Palantir over ‘ImmigrationOS’ contract with ICE

      Prominent tech investor Paul Graham has criticized Palantir Technologies Inc. over a software contract it recently won from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  Graham shared an article about the contract in a Thursday post on X. He wrote that “it’s a very exciting time in tech right now.

    • New Yorker ☛ Subtitling Your Life

      Hearing aids and cochlear implants have been getting better for years, but a new type of device—eyeglasses that display real-time speech transcription on their lenses—are a game-changing breakthrough.

  • Confidentiality

    • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Calls Concern Over Hegseth’s 2nd Signal Chat Episode ‘Waste of Time’

      The president said he had confidence in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after The New York Times reported that he had shared details about a military strike in another group chat.

    • American Oversight ☛ Following Weekend Hegseth Revelations, American Oversight Files Amended Complaint in Signalgate Lawsuit

      American Oversight asks the court to ensure Convicted Felon administration officials comply with the Federal Records Act.

• Defence/Aggression

  • North Korea continues to pursue covert biological weapons program: US report

    The State Department said Pyongyang has had biological weapons capabilities since at least the 1960s.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Vote-rigging claims mar internal polls for PM Anwar’s party

    Shock losses at divisional ballots prompt an emergency leadership meeting for Malaysia’s PKR.

  • New York Times ☛ China Warns Countries Not to Team Up Against It to Gain Convicted Felon Tariff Reprieve

    Curbing trade with China to curry favor with the United States would be “selfish and shortsighted,” the government said, promising to retaliate.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China warns countries against striking trade deals with US at its expense

    China on Monday accused Washington of abusing tariffs and warned countries against striking a broader economic deal with the United States at its expense, ratcheting up its rhetoric in a spiralling trade war between the world's two biggest economies.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Second Boeing jet starts return to US from China, tracker shows, amid tariff war

    It is not clear which party made the decision for the two aircraft to return to the US.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Philippines, US launch joint combat drills in ‘full battle test’

    The drills show the Convicted Felon administration is keeping Washington’s military support for its ally.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Iran's top diplomat to visit China on Tuesday

    Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi will visit China on Tuesday, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday, ahead of a third round of nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington due on Saturday in Oman. 

  • The Straits Times ☛ China arrests former senior anti-graft official for suspected bribes

    China has arrested a former senior anti-graft official on suspicion of taking bribes as the country continues its crackdown on corruption, state news agency Xinhua said on Tuesday.

  • New York Times ☛ U.S. Airstrike Hits Yemeni Capital, Killing 12, Local Health Officials Say

    Witnesses said an airstrike on Sunday hit a densely populated area adjacent to the Old City in Houthi-dominated Sana.

  • France24 ☛ Shin Bet intel chief accuses Netanyahu of demanding personal loyalty

    Israel’s internal security chief, Ronen Bar, has accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of demanding his personal loyalty and ordering surveillance on anti-government demonstrators. In a sworn statement to the Supreme Court, Bar detailed pressure to intervene in Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial and slammed the government’s attempt to dismiss him.

  • Myanmar junta kills 50 civilians in 3-day countrywide air raids

    The exiled civilian government vowed to ‘punish’ the military regime for its violent crimes against the public.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • France24 ☛ Ukraine's Catholics express hurt over late Pope's war stance

      Worshippers coming out of a Catholic church service in the Ukrainian city of Lviv on Monday expressed sorrow at the death of Pope Francis, but also lingering hurt that the Roman Catholic pontiff had not taken Ukraine's side in its war with Russia. FRANCE 24's Yinka Oyetade reports. Sharon Gaffney speaks to Marc Roscoe Loustau, cultural anthropologist and political commentator.

    • RFERL ☛ Zelenskyy Demands Russia Return Ukrainian Children in New International Campaign

      Ukrainian officials have launched the ChildrenAreNonNegotiable campaign aimed at rescuing thousands of children who are being held in Russian-occupied areas.

    • CS Monitor ☛ As bombs fall on Easter, a Ukrainian chaplain ministers to his front-line flock

      As a Ukrainian chaplain ministered to front-line troops on Easter Sunday, he highlighted their hopes and fears as they fight against Russian invaders.

    • New York Times ☛ Monday Briefing: A Broken Truce in Ukraine

      Plus, a strawberry farmer on a mission.

    • Meduza ☛ Trump says he hopes Russia and Ukraine will 'make a deal this week' — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Trump administration proposes making Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant 'neutral territory' under U.S. control — WSJ — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ 'Wiping out neighborhood after neighborhood' Russia pounds Ukraine's Pokrovsk, forcing civilians to flee under fire. For many, it's not the first time. — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Russian companies abandon unprofitable mines in occupied eastern Ukraine, triggering debate over who foots bill for decommissioning — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Russia strikes Ukraine’s Odesa with drones, injuring three and sparking fires — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Russian man gets 12 years in prison for reportedly donating $27 to Ukraine’s army — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Zurab Tsereteli, Russian-Georgian artist known for large-scale monuments, dies at 91 — Meduza

    • LRT ☛ Can Europe's air defence cope with Russian threat?

      Two former senior US military commanders have said Europe's aerial shield is not prepared to meet the scale of the threat from Russia, while the head of the US Navy's air and missile defence task force has told RFE/RL that intercepting incoming fire is "always a cat-and-mouse chase".

    • Meduza ☛ Russian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Kirill calls Easter 'victory day' in holiday sermon — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Zelensky says Russia violated its own ‘Easter ceasefire’ 2,935 times — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Moscow court finds father guilty of sexually abusing daughters who confessed to killing him seven years ago — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ 'He kissed up well' Artyom Zhoga was supposed to embody Putin’s new model of veterans in high places. So far, his performance has fallen flat. — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Putin admits that Russia attacks civilian targets in Ukraine, accuses ‘Kyiv regime’ of using human shields — Meduza

    • RFERL ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Talk Of Imminent Deal Sharpens Focus On Ukraine Diplomacy

      Ukrainian authorities reported dozens of Russian missile and drone attacks on April 21, a day after US President The Insurrectionist voiced hope that an agreement would be reached between the two countries this week.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukraine Stands By Proposal To End Attacks On Civilian Targets, Zelenskyy Says

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he is waiting for a clear response from Russia about whether it would accept a cease-fire on striking civilian targets.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Silicon Angle ☛ FTC sues Uber over Uber One subscription billing practices

      The U.S. Federal Trade Commission today sued Uber Technologies Inc. over a subscription service that it offers to customers of its ride-hailing and food delivery apps. Uber One, as the offering is called, had 30 million users as of Dec. 31.

    • New York Times ☛ FTC Sues Uber Over Billing for Its Uber One Subscription Service

      The suit is an indication that the commission’s close scrutiny of the tech industry will continue in the Convicted Felon administration.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Science Alert ☛ Crows Are So Smart They Can Identify Geometric Shapes, Study Finds

      We thought this was just a human thing!

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s leading presidential candidate vows to address ‘Korea discount’ [Ed: No, it is not a problem that Korean companies do not lie about or fake their "value" like companies in the US (less so in Europe)]

    The "discount" refers to the lower valuations South Korean firms typically trade on relative to global peers.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea braces itself for tough US trade talks as liberal party issues caution

    South Korean officials are meeting their US counterparts on April 24.

  • Bira 91 Employee Unrest Grows Amid Due Salaries, Layoffs and Operational Crisis: Report

    Bira 91, an Indian craft beer maker, is reportedly facing issues related to the pending salary of the employees amid layoffs and operational turmoil. The Bira 91's current and former employees all are feeling unrest due to pending payments, unreimbursed allowances, and other unsolved dues, as per reports. The employees were told they would start receiving their due salaries soon, but there was no further update from Bira 91.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea acting president sees US trade talks leading to beneficial solution

    South Korea's acting President Han Duck-soo said during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that he expects trade talks this week with the United States to pave the way toward a mutually beneficial solution.

  • China accuses US of new pressure campaign on global trade

    Beijing warns of retaliation after reports that Washington is urging allies to cut trade with China.

  • France24 ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man clash with Federal Reserve chief rocks markets

    Markets saw another significant drop on Monday as US President The Insurrectionist continued to clash with Jerome Powell, the head of the US Central Bank, after Powell refused to reduce the federal interest rater. Powell, who Convicted Felon called a "major loser," has maintained the federal interest to combat rising inflation caused by Convicted Felon's tariffs, prompting Convicted Felon to say he is looking for a way to legally fire Powell before his term ends in 2026.

  • Federal News Network ☛ USPS and NRLCA strike deal on new contract

    USPS reached a tentative agreement with the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, which represents more than 130,000 rural letter carriers.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • New York Times ☛ In New Trial, Palin Says New York Times Editorial Damaged Her Reputation

    Closing arguments in the libel case are expected on Tuesday, after which the nine jurors will begin deliberations.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • ACLU ☛ How We Help the Immigrant Community Feel Seen

    A lot of people think that immigrants in detention must have done something wrong, but many people have not broken any laws and yet they are still detained. Some have no family anywhere near their detention center and no idea how long they may be held. I decided to visit these individuals. That’s how KWESI began, as a visitation group.

    KWESI is a group of volunteers who visit immigrants held in government detention. It’s named after a Ghanaian man, Kwesi, who was transferred to the Mesa Verde detention center in California. The center opened in 2015 and could detain 400 humans. Government agents swiftly started transferring people from other jails and detention centers in the area. With KWESI, I started out visiting a lot of asylum seekers from various countries like Ghana, Cameroon, and El Salvador who were detained and whose families could not visit, either because they live too far away or because their family members were also undocumented.

  • JURIST ☛ Lawyers for Venezuelan immigrants ask US Supreme Court to block removals

    Lawyers representing Venezuelan immigrants who are threatened with deportation filed Monday an emergency request to the Supreme Court on Monday to block the removals. The Forrest Dump administration was prepared to deport dozens of Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador last Friday before the Supreme Court blocked the action.

• Books or Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • MWL ☛ More Titles in Direct Print Sales

    In spare minutes, I’ve been expanding my direct print sale operation. You can now get all of these in my bookstore. If you pay for the print book, you get the ebook free.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Silicon Angle ☛ Google hits back as DOJ pushes to break its stranglehold on web search

  The future of Surveillance Giant Google LLC is up in the air amid a high-stakes courtroom battle that kicked off today, beginning three weeks of hearings to determine how it’s punished for using its revolutionary search engine to establish an illegal monopoly.

• New York Times ☛ Will a Federal Judge Break Up Google?

  On Monday, the tech giant and the U.S. government face off in court over how to fix the company’s online search monopoly. The outcome could alter Surveillance Giant Google and Silicon Valley.

• New York Times ☛ U.S. Asks Judge to Break Up Google

  The Justice Department said the best way to address the company’s monopoly in internet search was to force it to sell Chrome, among other measures.

• Patents

  • Unified Patents ☛ $1,000 awarded for Morris Routing network patent monopoly prior art

    Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winner, Calvin Zhong, who was awarded $1,000 for his prior art submission on U.S. Patent 11,196,660, owned by Morris Routing Technologies, LLC, an NPE. The ‘660 patent monopoly generally relates to routing methods, systems, and computer program products. It has been asserted against Samsung.

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

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ The Hughes-Reyna Divide Continues: Dongkuk v. US

    by Dennis Crouch

    In a new decision released April 21, 2025, the Federal Circuit has given us another example of the jurisprudential divide between Judges Hughes and Reyna–something that I’ve followed across numerous opinions. Dongkuk v. US continues this pattern in a case involving antidumping duties on Korean wind towers.

    Anti-Dumping Law: Under the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. § 1673 et seq.), the Commerce Department investigates whether foreign manufacturers are selling products in the U.S. at less than fair value (“dumping”). This process begins when a domestic industry files a petition simultaneously with both the Commerce Department and the U.S. International Trade Commission (19 U.S.C. § 1673a(b)).

  • Unified Patents ☛ Eric Zautner entity, Conexus, web applications patent monopoly prior art found

    Unified is pleased to announce prior art has been found on U.S. Patent 11,736,499, owned and asserted by Conexus LLC, an NPE and entity of Eric Zautner. The '499 patent monopoly focuses on monitoring web applications for potentially malicious code execution, employing a model of legitimate behavior to identify anomalies.

• Copyrights

  • Digital Music News ☛ Snoop Dogg and Death Row Move to Toss ‘Undeniably Time-Barred’ $107 Million Lawsuit

    Snoop Dogg and Death Row Records are looking to dismiss the $107 million lawsuit filed by Lydia Harris, who they say should also be barred from litigating against them moving forward. Counsel for Snoop Dogg and the relevant label just recently made the dismissal push official.