Leftovers

• Latvia ☛ Rēzekne is Latvia's Youth Capital 2026

  Rēzekne municipality has been announced as the Youth Capital of Latvia 2026, the Ministry of Education and Science (IZM) announced at the Youth Opportunities Festival ‘Kopums’ at the weekend.

• Ruben Schade ☛ A parcel locker adventure, and being an edge case

  Normally parcels that are addressed to me are automatically added to my AusPost mobile application when they’re addressed to my parcel locker and scanned at the originating post office. Curiously, this one never showed up. I had no record of the parcel being sent, or delivered, or being available in the parcel locker.

• Juha-Matti Santala ☛ My wallet doesn’t run out of battery

  I used to be in the previous group but after way too many stressful late night subways home with 1% of battery life left, hoping that the battery lasts until the end of the trip or scrambling to get the phone charged somewhere in the evening so that I can buy a ticket home, I decided that stress was foolish stress.

• Science

  • Futurism ☛ Mysterious Object Hurtling Toward Us From Beyond Solar System Appears to Be Emitting Its Own Light, Scientists Find

    Intriguingly, 3I/ATLAS will come within spitting distance — at least in astronomical terms — of Mars this fall, giving us a tantalizing opportunity to have a first-hand look. Loeb suggested using NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to point its scientific instruments at the rare visitor.

  • Futurism ☛ It's Official: NASA Is Giving Up on Climate Change Science

    In a major blow to climate change science, NASA is officially not continuing its work studying global warming and will instead just stick to space exploration.

  • Society for Scholarly Publishing ☛ Subscribe-to-Open Is Doomed. Here's Why.

    One of the most popular aphorisms invoked in the ongoing discussion about the future of scholarly communication is an argument that making a global transition to open access (OA) will require no new funding – because, after all, the necessary money is “already in the system” and needs only to be directed away from subscription fees, commercial publishers’ profits, and pay-to-publish charges (which make content free but impose access tolls on publishing services), and instead applied directly to the costs of open publishing, thus enabling an effectively cost-neutral transition from a hybrid pay- and open-access landscape to a fully OA one.

  • Truthdig ☛ The Soviet Vibes of Trump’s Assault on Science

    This kind of scientific misinformation and the consequences it can bring now sound eerily familiar to U.S. climate experts like Shaina Sadai. She has been stunned by how quickly politics have overshadowed science since President Donald Trump took office. The most recent government climate report, which the Department of Energy released last month, for instance, so drastically misrepresented the studies it cited that the researchers whose work it drew from publicly decried it. “I’m just really having a hard time with the barrage of apocalypses every day,” she said.

  • Ken Shirriff ☛ Why do people keep writing about the imaginary compound Cr2Gr2Te6?

    I was reading the latest issue of the journal Science, and a paper mentioned the compound Cr2Gr2Te6. For a moment, I thought my knowledge of the periodic table was slipping, since I couldn't remember the element Gr. It turns out that Gr was supposed to be Ge, germanium, but that raises two issues. First, shouldn't the peer reviewers and proofreaders at a top journal catch this error? But more curiously, it appears that Cr2Gr2Te6 is a mistake that has been copied around several times.

  • Julia Language Blog Aggregator ☛ Enhance Model Accuracy Using Universal Differential Equations

    In this Julia for Devs post, we will explore the fascinating world of using universal differential equations (UDEs)for model discovery. A UDE is a differential equation where part (or all) of it is defined by a universal approximator (typically a neural network). These UDEs play a pivotal role in uncovering missing aspects of established models.

• Career/Education

  • YLE ☛ From cosy to colossal: Finland's shift to large daycare centres stirs concern

    Jyväskylä has been at the forefront of a trend towards ever-larger daycare centres. In recent years the city has opened six facilities for between 170 and 250 children, with two more under construction.

  • Wired ☛ How Microschools Became the Latest Tech Mogul Obsession

    Between homeschool provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill and Trump’s attempts to gut the Department of Education, teaching kids looks different now. Silicon Valley’s answer? Microschools.

  • Ava ☛ last data protection cert exam! | ava's blog

    I have already received the grades for three of them, now I have to wait for the other three, then I can order my cert and be done. Then I can officially call myself a (certified) data protection officer. Wild.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Pro Publica ☛ Trump Rolls Back Rules Protecting Mental Health Coverage

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ Michigan experts: Back-to-school prep should start early, at home

    Doctors urge parents to prepare kids for the school year with healthy sleep, limited screens and safety habits.

  • Futurism ☛ Mark Zuckerberg Has No Problem With People Using His AI to Generate Fake Medical Information

    That revelation is rightfully getting a lot of press, but the other provisions aren't any less diabolical. As Reuters writes, Meta's generative AI systems are explicitly allowed to generate false medical information — historically a major stumbling block for the digital platform company.

  • Rlang ☛ Nonparametric serial interval estimation

    Epidemiological delays inform about the time between two well-defined events related to a disease. The serial interval (SI) of an infectious disease is defined as the time between symptom onset in a primary case (infector) and symptom onset in a secondary case (infectee). It is a widely used epidemiological delay quantity and plays a central role in mathematical/statistical models of disease transmission. There exists a tight link between the reproduction number (average number of secondary infections generated by an infected individual) and the serial interval. Therefore, getting accurate knowledge about the SI distribution is key to gain a clear understanding of transmission dynamics during outbreaks. Timings of symptom onset for infector-infectee pairs can be obtained from line list data and observations usually consist of calendar dates. From a mathematical perspective, it is more convenient to work with numbers than with calendar dates and the latter are typically transformed to integers for the sake of statistical analysis.

• Proprietary

  • Proprietary

    • Sean Conner ☛ “I've got a bad feeling about this”

      “Do you get may people returning these?”

      “All the time,” she said.

      This really doesn't bode well.

    • Nick Heer ☛ ‘Apple in China’

      It is this tension — ably shown by McGee in specific actions and stories rather than merely written about — that elevates “Apple in China” above the typical books about Apple and its executives. It is part of the story of how Apple became massive, how an operations team became so influential, and how the seemingly dowdy business of supply chains in China applied increasingly brilliant skills and became such a valuable asset in worldwide manufacturing. And it all leads directly to Tim Cook standing between Donald Trump and J.D. Vance in the White House, using the same autocrat handling skills he has practiced for years. Few people or businesses come out of this story looking good. Some look worse than others.

    • Six Colors ☛ Some key facts about passkeys and how they work

      Passkeys’ biggest flaw right now is that they aren’t exchangeable across password-management systems. I recommend Apple-centric people use the Passwords app to leverage the Safari and iCloud Keychain infrastructure and end-to-end encryption at the moment. If you regularly use Android or Windows, 1Password can manage passkeys across all its supported platforms, so it’s a better choice for now.

    • France24 ☛ Russia partially restricts WhatsApp and Telegram calls to 'combat criminals'

      Russia announced curbs on calls on the WhatsApp and Telegram messenger apps on Wednesday, saying that this was necessary to fight criminality, state media reported.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • The Atlantic ☛ AI Is a Mass-Delusion Event

      The interview triggered a feeling that has become exceedingly familiar over the past three years. It is the sinking feeling of a societal race toward a future that feels bloodless, hastily conceived, and shruggingly accepted. Are we really doing this? Who thought this was a good idea? In this sense, the Acosta interview is just a product of what feels like a collective delusion. This strange brew of shock, confusion, and ambivalence, I’ve realized, is the defining emotion of the generative-AI era. Three years into the hype, it seems that one of AI’s enduring cultural impacts is to make people feel like they’re losing it.

    • The Conversation ☛ I got an AI to impersonate me and teach me my own course – here’s what I learned about the future of education

      But here’s the kicker. As AI becomes ever more central to education, the human teacher becomes more important, not less. They will guide the learning experience, bringing published works to the conceptual framework of a course, and driving in-person student engagement and encouragement. They can extend their value as personal AI tutors – via agents – for each student, based on individual learning needs.

      Where do younger teachers fit in, who don’t have a back catalogue to train LLMs? Well, the younger the teacher, the more AI-native they are likely to be. They can use AI to flesh out their own conceptual vision for a course by widening the research beyond their own work, by prompting the agent on what should be included.

    • Daniel Stenberg ☛ AI slop attacks on the curl project

      In August 16 2025 I did a keynote with this title on the FrOSCon conference in Bonn, Germany. The room held a few hundred seats and every single one was occupied with people also filling up the stairs and was standing along the walls. Awesome!

    • Silicon Angle ☛ AI chatbot scrutiny intensifies: Texas AG launches probe of Meta and Character.AI over misleading mental health claims

      Moreover, said the office, the sometimes very personal conversations children have with the chatbots “are logged, tracked, and exploited for targeted advertising and algorithmic development, raising serious concerns about privacy violations, data abuse, and false advertising.”

      The attorney general has now issued Civil Investigative Demands to both firms to determine if they have violated Texas consumer protection laws, including making fraudulent claims, privacy misrepresentations and the concealment of material data usage.

    • Wired ☛ WIRED Roundup: Why GPT-5 Flopped

      In today’s episode, our host, Zöe Schiffer, is joined by WIRED senior politics writer Jake Lahut to run through five of the best stories we published this week—from how the Trump administration is creating and sharing memes to make fun of deportations, to NASA’s ambitious goal to put nuclear reactors on the moon. Then, Zöe and Jake dive into why users kind of hated OpenAI’s GPT-5 release.

    • Paul Krugman ☛ AI Is Power-Hungry

      At the time (and at my age) it seemed wonderfully futuristic: Food service without people! In reality, of course, automats weren’t automated; each required a substantial staff to operate the kitchen and keep refilling those glass-doored compartments. And because automats weren’t all they pretended to be, they were eventually driven out of business by the rise of fast food.

      Many applications of information technology are, like the automats of yore, less miraculous than they seem. True, the user experience makes you feel as if you’ve transcended the material world. You click a button on Amazon’s web site and a day or two later the item you wanted magically appears on your porch. But behind that hands-free experience lie a million-strong workforce and a huge physical footprint of distribution centers and delivery vehicles.

    • Pivot to AI ☛ AI brings huge enterprise efficiencies! Except in making money

      Chatbots and “copilots” across a company — McKinsey uses “copilot” as a generic noun, which I’m sure Microsoft will be delighted by — don’t deliver measurable gains.

      For projects using generative AI to do one specific job, 90% are stuck in pilot mode and don’t ever make it to production — mainly because they don’t work.

      McKinsey blames large language models being inaccurate and untrustworthy. Because they’re lying hallucination engines.

    • Andy Bell ☛ Our principles on AI

      1. We will never publish AI-generated content, be it words, code, video, audio and images
      2. We won’t boost content that we suspect has been wholly, or partially generated by AI
      3. Content submitted by guest authors that is wholly or partially generated by AI will be immediately rejected
      

    • Blog.Lyall.Co ☛ Careful Communication

      Creation is the most powerful tool for communication that we have. Music, writing, art, software… it all communicates something to those that experience it. If you devote your time and energy and self into something—a song, a piece of writing, an app—that artifact forever communicates that you care. You cared enough about the people who experience and interact with it in the future to put in the dedication to create it.

      So what do you communicate when you have AI write your email, write your app, write your song? That you don’t care. You don’t care about the person on the other end to put the time in yourself. You do care about yourself, about saving your own time and energy. But not about them.

  • Windows TCO / Windows Bot Nets

    • The Record ☛ Ransomware gang masking PipeMagic backdoor as ChatGPT desktop app: Microsoft

      The study backs up reports from the cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, which said in October that it saw cybercriminals using a fake ChatGPT application as bait to deploy the backdoor against entities in Asia and in Saudi Arabia. Kaspersky previously said the malware allows threat actors to steal sensitive information and offers remote access to compromised devices.

• Privatisation/Privateering

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ Private Equity Is Coming for Public Utilities

    Utility watchdogs argue that privately owned utilities are at the heart of the problem. These power companies are typically regulated monopolies; ratepayers are captive to whatever electricity company serves their home. As Karlee Weinmann, research manager at the utility watchdog Energy and Policy Institute, explained to the Lever, “Customers do not have a choice in who they buy their electricity from.”

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • [Old] Newsweek ☛ Telegram Messenger's Ties to Russia's FSB Revealed in New Report

      Cybersecurity expert Michał Woźniak told IStories that beyond storing decrypted messages, Telegram also attaches a unique device identifier to each message sent on the platform, known as auth_key_id, which can determine where a user is located and reveal their IP addresses.

      "If someone has access to Telegram traffic and cooperates with Russian intelligence services, this means that the device identifier becomes a really big problem—a tool for global surveillance of messenger users, regardless of where they are and what server they connect to," Woźniak said.

  • Confidentiality

    • PC World ☛ NordVPN bids farewell to its Meshnet feature—what you need to know

      It is set to stop working on December 1, 2025 at which time all associated functionality will be removed. All other NordVPN features and services outside of Meshnet will be unaffected.

      First introduced in 2022, Meshnet offered a unique and functional way to securely connect multiple devices similar to a LAN connection.

• Defence/Aggression

  • New Eastern Europe ☛ European academia studies Russia too little, too refined, and too slowly

    Research into contemporary Russia remains overlooked in spite of the current situation in Europe. While this issue persists, it will be impossible to truly understand the threat posed by the Kremlin not only to Ukraine but the entire continent.

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Trump Confesses that the United States Is a Client of Russia

    And remember: one of the promises Trump floated during the election, one of the promises that — Nicolay Patrushev said — is why Russia helped reinstall Trump is that Trump limit intelligence sharing with Europe, all of it. Europe relies on that intelligence to combat Russia’s influence operations within Europe. Without that intelligence, one after another country would fall to a pro-Russian party.

    Since returning to office, Trump has dismantled every tool the US created to win the Cold War. It doesn’t need to be the case that Trump has stashed his Administration with actual Russian agents — narcissism and venality explain much of what we’re seeing — but there are somewhere between two and twenty Trump advisors who I have good reason to suspect are Russian agents. Over the past three years, right wingers have forced the tech platforms to eliminate the moderation that had provided visibility on Russia’s influence operations. As I laid out, Trump dismantled US Russian expertise and the investigative tools created to hunt and prevent Russian influence operations in the US. Meanwhile, he is willfully bankrupting the country based on plans largely adopted in joint venture with Putin client Viktor Orbán.

  • BBC ☛ Should Europe wean itself off US tech?

    Imagine if US President Donald Trump could flip a switch and turn off Europe's [Internet].

    It may sound far-fetched, crazy even. But it's a scenario that has been seriously discussed in tech industry and policy circles in recent months, as tensions with Washington have escalated, and concerns about the EU's reliance on American technology have come to the fore.

    At the root of these concerns is the fact just three US giants - Google, Microsoft and Amazon - provide 70% of Europe's cloud-computing infrastructure, the scaffolding on which many online services depend.

  • The Strategist ☛ Bookshelf: smartphones shape war in hyperconnected world

    The smartphone is helping to shape the conduct and representation of contemporary war, argues Matthew Ford in his new book, War in the Smartphone Age: Conflict, Connectivity and the Crises at our Fingertips.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • DeSmog ☛ Data Center Lobbyists Clear the Way for Mega-Projects in Rural Georgia

    A DeSmog review of public records suggests that industry lobbyists and company representatives prevailed upon Coweta County officials to dilute earlier versions of the proposed planning rules for data centers.

    Specifically, residents opposing Project Sail are concerned that the latest draft of the rules — known as an ordinance — no longer includes certain provisions designed to limit adverse environmental impacts and require special public hearings for proposed data centers.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Norsk Hydro confirms 750 layoffs in global white-collar workforce

      Norwegian aluminium giant Norsk Hydro announced it will eliminate 750 white-collar positions globally as part of a strategic cost-cutting initiative aimed at saving 1 billion Norwegian crowns annually (~USD 97.8 million), according to a company statement published on Thursday and reported by Reuters.

      The workforce reductions will begin immediately. The first 600 positions are expected to be cut by the end of 2025, with a further 150 eliminated in 2026, potentially through enhanced efficiency measures, as per the statement.

      Hydro also confirmed that the measures will extend beyond staffing to include reductions in travel and consultancy expenses, as part of the broader NOK 1 billion saving plan.

    • The Register UK ☛ Google datacenters to be powered by molten salt reactors

      The small modular reactor startup, along with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), one of the largest utilities in the country, aim to bring 50 megawatts of nuclear power to Tennessee.

    • Herman Õunapuu ☛ Those cheap AliExpress 18650 Li-ion cell power bank enclosures suck, actually :: ./techtipsy

      I have two TOMO M4 power banks around, and they are fantastic for reusing these old 18650 battery cells inside them. You can even mix and match cells without a worry because they are individually addressed, meaning that any issues with battery charge levels and voltages differing between cells are not a concern. Unfortunately the TOMO M4 lacks modern features, such as USB-C ports and USB-C PD outputs at higher voltages and currents, which makes it less useful and convenient in 2025. I haven’t found any newer designs from them as well that are just as cool.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ Drones Are Blasting Iconic Argument From 'Marriage Story' to Scare Wolves Away From Cows in Oregon

      The hazing soundboard features an eclectic mix of music and pop culture samples. Audio clips blasted over the nighttime drones’ speakers include AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” Five Finger Death Punch’s “Blue on Black,” gunshot and firework sound effects, and dialogue from Noah Baumbach’s 2019 film Marriage Story. In the selected scene, Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver scream vicious, emotionally charged insults at each other.

  • Overpopulation

    • Science Alert ☛ Earth's Continents Are Drying Out at an Unprecedented Rate, Study Warns

      "Dry areas are drying at a faster rate than wet areas are wetting," the team writes. "At the same time, the area experiencing drying has increased, while the area experiencing wetting has decreased."

    • Crooked Timber ☛ If something can’t go on forever, it will stop

      Before looking at the argument in more detail, it’s worth recalling Stein’s Law: “If something can’t go on forever, it will stop.” If the world’s population was in danger of falling below the level needed to sustain civilisation (science fiction writer Charlie Stross has estimated 100 million) there would presumably be some kind of drastic action. Fortunately, this is unlikely to happen for another 1000 years or so. If we manage to leave the planet in a habitable condition so far into the future, we can leave population policy to our distant descendants.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Air Force Times ☛ US Air Force vet charged with felony assault with a deli weapon

    DOJ says it is taking this ham seriously, arresting Dunn Wednesday and charging him with a felony.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ Here’s what could happen if CISA 2015 expires next month

    The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, also known as CISA 2015, is due to end next month unless Congress extends it. Leaders of both of the House and Senate panels with the responsibility for reauthorizing it say they intend to act on legislation next month, but the law still stands to expire soon without a quick bicameral deal.

    The original 2015 law provided legal safeguards for organizations to share threat data with other organizations and the federal government.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • TruthOut ☛ Historian Rebukes Trump Imposing His Own Views of US History on the Smithsonian

      The Trump administration and the Department of Education are also currently partnering with PragerU, a controversial conservative media company, to make educational materials. “This is a whitewashing of history under the guise of making white children feel better about themselves,” says Gordon-Reed. PragerU content has already been approved for use in public schools in 10 states across the country.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Reclaim The Net ☛ Irish Govt Pushes "Disinfo" Plan Despite Public Backlash

    The plan, quietly released in April, follows a government-run consultation in late 2023 that revealed widespread rejection of the proposed measures. An independent review by Gript of all 470 responses submitted during that consultation found that 83 percent of participants were against the plan entirely. A similar majority raised concerns about threats to civil liberties, and four out of five said the entire scheme should be dropped.

    None of that stopped the government from proceeding. Instead of reckoning with the criticism, officials simply published the strategy and presented it as a positive step in the fight against “disinformation,” a term that remains undefined and highly malleable.

  • EFF ☛ From Book Bans to Internet Bans: Wyoming Lets Parents Control the Whole State’s Access to The Internet

    If you've read about the sudden appearance of age verification across the internet in the UK and thought it would never happen in the U.S., take note: many politicians want the same or even more strict laws. As of July 1st, South Dakota and Wyoming enacted laws requiring any website that hosts any sexual content to implement age verification measures. These laws would potentially capture a broad range of non-pornographic content, including classic literature and art, and expose a wide range of platforms, of all sizes, to civil or criminal liability for not using age verification on every user. That includes social media networks like X, Reddit, and Discord; online retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble; and streaming platforms like Netflix and Rumble—essentially, any site that allows user-generated or published content without gatekeeping access based on age.

  • The Florida Pheonix ☛ Law banning school library books ruled ‘overbroad and unconstitutional’

    A federal trial judge in Florida has ruled that the state’s law banning books deemed “pornographic” from school libraries is, in part, “overbroad and unconstitutional.”

    Carlos Mendoza, a President Barack Obama-appointed judge in the Middle District Court of Florida, issued a summary judgement in a lawsuit filed by book publishers against the 2023 law, HB 1069, this week.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ Indonesia’s Rulers Are Whitewashing the Crimes of Suharto

    In the 1960s, the Indonesian dictator Suharto was responsible for one of the twentieth century’s bloodiest political massacres. Under the rule of Prabowo, the country’s government is suppressing the memory of Suharto’s crimes while vilifying the Left.

  • Jari Komppa ☛ Smut

    I'll give some historical context for anyone possibly reading this in some enlightened future years from now. Some time this summer, an Australian activist group Collective Shout decided that certain types of games are bad. Their intentions seem fairly pure, but their activities had several unintended consequences.

    First they tried to get Steam to block certain games directly, which Steam pretty much ignored, I guess. So they went to credit card companies and demanded that they should block such sales. And these companies then decided to throw quite a wide net on what may or may not be sold.

    Steam caved and changed their terms of service saying something in the lines of "it's up to credit card companies what can be sold" or something.

    Itch went into total panic mode.

  • Garry Kasparov ☛ What Happens When America's Campus Ceasefire Expires?

    Add to this mix a powerful skepticism about the democratic system—and an openness to authoritarianism—and you have a toxic stew.

    At Renew Democracy Initiative and The Next Move, we’re offering an alternative to all of the noise about the campus crisis: A perspective on freedom and democracy from people who’ve experienced the opposite. A spotlight on issues that evade primetime media coverage. And a firm commitment to freedom of speech and an open exchange of ideas, even—and especially—when we disagree.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • The Dissenter ☛ Online Articles Are Protected Newspaper Articles, Too

  • CPJ ☛ CPJ calls on Kazakhstan to accredit, end ban on 16 RFE/RL journalists

    “RFE/RL’s bold reporting has an absolutely central place in Kazakhstan’s media sphere, and we await with deep concern a court verdict that could dramatically hinder its work,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Kazakh authorities must allow RFE/RL to operate free from harassment and should reform overly restrictive foreign accreditation laws.”

  • CPJ ☛ ‘It has become extremely difficult for us’: Uncertain future for RFE/RL’s Kazakh service

    “You just want to start screaming,” says Doorov, who joined the Kazakh arm of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in 2014, and the outlet grew to be one of Kazakhstan’s most influential sources of independent news. But a recent government crackdown—spurred by the outlet’s critical reporting on the 2022 anti-government protests—threatens its survival.

  • International Business Times ☛ MSNBC to MS NOW? Cable News Channel Announces 'Confusing' Rebrand Following NBC Divorce [Ed: Microsoft NOW! Your "news" source...]

    In a sweeping brand shift tied to Comcast's plan to spin off most NBCUniversal cable networks, MSNBC will adopt a new name—MS NOW, short for 'My Source News Opinion World'—and shed the iconic peacock later this year.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • International Business Times ☛ Swatch 'Slanted Eyes' Ad Triggers Boycott in China Where 27% of Its Revenue Come From

    Swiss watchmaker Swatch is under fire in China after releasing an advert that critics blasted as racially offensive. The campaign, launched in on Monday, quickly spiralled into one of the company's biggest PR crises in years, as furious Chinese consumers accused the brand of mocking their appearance.

    The controversy erupted when the advert, part of the Swatch Essentials collection, featured an Asian male model pulling the corners of his eyes into a pose long denounced as the 'slanted eyes' gesture. The image, shared across social media, drew immediate condemnation, with millions of users on Weibo describing it as outright racist.

    Within hours, Swatch's name was trending across Chinese platforms, sparking calls for a nationwide boycott. For a brand that relies heavily on the Chinese market, the fallout could be devastating.

  • Advance Local Media LLC ☛ The last dance? Organizers of North America’s largest powwow say 2026 will be the event’s final year - lonestarlive.com

    Organizers announced Saturday that 2026 will be the last time the cultural event is held, saying via email and social media that it will end after 43 years without providing details on the decision.

    “There comes a time,” Gathering of Nations Ltd. said in a statement.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ Columbia Is Replacing Its TAs With Nonunion Adjuncts

    A week before classes were set to begin, Columbia University informed around 140 unionized graduate student workers that they had been removed from their teaching duties. The university is hiring nonunion adjunct instructors to do the work instead.

  • Democracy for the Arab World Now ☛ United States: State Department Shuts Down the Human Rights Reporting Gateway

    The State Department has shut down the Human Rights Reporting Gateway (HRG), an online portal that allows members of the public and non-governmental organizations worldwide to submit reports of gross violations of human rights by foreign security forces, said DAWN in a statement issued today. The Department has offered no explanation for the shutdown, nor even acknowledged it.

  • Jamie Zawinski ☛ SFPD surveillance unit's close ties to crypto billionaire

    In other words: The high-tech unit of SFPD is funded almost entirely by two tech billionaires, and the surveillance systems it operates will be housed in one of those billionaires' offices.

  • San Francisco, California ☛ SFPD surveillance unit's close ties to crypto billionaire - 48 hills

    This is another big step in the privatization of San Francisco policing and the overall move by Lurie to rely on voluntary gifts from the very rich instead of taxes and democratic budgeting by elected officials to fund services in San Francisco.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Sean Conner ☛ A first world problem that is partially my own fault, but I must also lay some blame to the Monopolistic Phone Company who took untold billions from the government for infrastructure upgrades, failed to do so while at the same time driving out other DSL providers

    Then a little over three months ago my router just spontaneously reset to it's factory settings and I couldn't get the DSL back up. I called the ISP and trying to get up and running again, I relented to get the “wireless service” only to realize after I hung up that I had use the wrong password. I was then back on DSL. Several days later the “wireless service device” showed up at our doorstep, but I knew that just be looking at it funny, the DSL would be immediately turned off and I would be forced to use it. So I put it into a corner of the office and pretended to forget about it.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Court of Appeals: DMCA Subpoena Shortcut to Unmask Pirates Remains Closed

    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has confirmed that copyright holders can't use a "DMCA subpoena shortcut" to identify internet subscribers suspected of copyright infringement. The Court sides with ISP Cox Communications, which intervened in the matter. The ruling blocks a legal tactic filmmakers have used to bypass the traditional, more expensive "John Doe" lawsuits. At the same time, it's also bad news for the MPA and RIAA.

  • Rolling Stone ☛ Watch Neil Young Play 'This Note's For You' For First Time in 28 Years

    MTV refused to air it. “I must admit I feel awkward defending our decision because I happen to think it’s a fantastic video,” MTV/VH1 General Manager Lee Masters told The Los Angeles Times. “Everyone in Programming loved it – it’s spectacular and it’s very funny. But we had two corporate problems: First, our attorneys advised us against playing it because its use of likenesses of Michael Jackson and Spuds MacKenzie could leave us open to trademark infringement charges. Since then, Warner Records’ legal department has offered to indemnify us against any claims, but our attorneys still felt that might not be enough protection.”