Leftovers

• Hackaday ☛ The Confusing World Of Wood Preservation Treatments

  Wood is an amazing material to use around the house, both for its green credentials and the way it looks and feels. That said, as a natural product there are a lot of microorganisms and insects around that would love to take a few good nibbles out of said wood, no matter whether it’s used for fencing, garden furniture or something else. For fencing in particular wood treatments are therefore applied that seek to deter or actively inhibit these organisms, but as the UK bloke over at the [Rag ‘n’ Bone Brown] YouTube channel found out last year, merely slapping on a coating of wood preserver may actually make things worse.

• [Old] The Baltic Guide ☛ Today is the night of ancient fires – Bonfires will burn on the shores of the Baltic Sea - The Baltic Guide Online

  On the last Saturday of August, each year the end of the summer is celebrated by the lighting of bonfires. Bonfires and signal fires will be lit in hundreds of places around the Estonian coast. The night of ancient fires is also celebrated elsewhere in the Baltic Sea region, for example in Finland, Sweden and Latvia. In Estonia, bonfires are also burned on the banks of inland waterways.

• Los Angeles Times ☛ 'Weird Al' makes a 'bigger and weirder' return to Kia Forum

  Yankovic, 65, has also not released a parody song for more than a decade, in part, he says, because there’s no longer a “monoculture where it’s more obvious what the hits are,” but also because he enjoys the challenges of those original pastiches, some of which take months for him to develop.

• Vidit Bhargava ☛ A short primer on Action-Centered Design

  Tools follow action, just like form follows function. Action-Centered Design is a versatile framework that enables designers to design for actions first.

• Robert Birming ☛ The kindness of early warnings

  These days I see it differently. I know it’s actually a good thing if I discover a problem early on. No fun news to receive, of course, but a lot less troublesome than finding out when it’s too late.

• YLE ☛ Google Street View car mistakenly drives through children's traffic playground in Finland

  Residents in the northern Finnish municipality of Oulainen have reported Google Street View cars driving into private yards and even through a children's traffic park this summer.

• Lyra ☛ You no longer need JavaScript

  So much of the web these days is ruined by the bloat that is modern JavaScript frameworks. React apps that take several seconds to load. NextJS sites that throw random hydration errors. The node_modules folder that takes up gigabytes on your hard drive.

  It’s awful. And you don’t need it.

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Cool Gemstones And Fiery Grime: Blazing Rainbow in Space Hints at Earth's Origins

    Is this how it all began?

  • Science Alert ☛ Cutting Back on One Amino Acid Increased Lifespan of Mice by Up to 33%

    Intriguing...

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Reverse Dementia-Like Memory Loss in Mice by Supercharging Brain Cells

    Could mitochondria be key to neurodegeneration?

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Discover Fungi That Break The 'One Nucleus, One Genome' Rule

    Here's why that matters.

  • Science Alert ☛ Breakthrough Breast Cancer Pill Extends Survival in 7-Year Trial

    It's already FDA approved.

  • Hackaday ☛ The Advanced Project Gemini Concepts That Could Have Been

    Looking back on the trajectory leading to Project Apollo and the resulting Moon missions, one can be forgiven for thinking that this was a strict and well-defined plan that was being executed, especially considering the absolute time crunch. The reality is that much of this trajectory was in flux, with the earlier Project Gemini seeing developments towards supplying manned space stations and even its own Moon missions. [Spaceflight Histories] recently examined some of these Advanced Gemini concepts that never came to pass.

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] The UK Space Agency has been absorbed into the science department. The potential effects are still unclear

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-08-26 [Older] Can you be aware of nothing? The rare sleep experience scientists are trying to understand

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-08-26 [Older] Supernovae: a first-of-its-kind star explosion raises new questions about these momentous events

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-08-27 [Older] When surgical tools don’t fit: how gender bias in design puts women surgeons at risk

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-08-28 [Older] Sun dogs, rainbows and glories are celestial wonders – and they may appear in alien skies too

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-08-27 [Older] Defendants in sexual assault cases are just as likely to misremember the event as alleged victims – new study

  • Space ☛ James Webb Space Telescope takes 1st look at interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS with unexpected results

    The abundance of carbon dioxide in the coma of 3I/ATLAS could indicate that the interstellar comet has a heart that is intrinsically rich in carbon dioxide. This could imply that the comet contains ices that were exposed to much higher levels of radiation than comets in the solar system have been exposed to.

    Alternatively, the team suggests this high carbon dioxide content could indicate that 3I/ATLAS may have formed in a specific site called the "carbon dioxide ice line" within the swirling cloud of matter, or "protoplanetary disk," that surrounded its stellar parent. This is defined as the point at which the temperature around an infant star or "protostar" falls low enough to allow carbon dioxide to change from a gas to a solid.

  • University of Michigan ☛ UMich to close CSCAR, longtime statistical consulting service

    The University of Michigan’s Consulting for Statistics, Computing and Analytics Research, established in 1946, provides free software support and consulting on data analysis for all University researchers in need of assistance. This month, the University disclosed they will phase out the unit.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Quantum [Internet] is possible using standard Internet protocol — University engineers send quantum signals over fiber lines without losing entanglement

    Engineers at the University of Pennsylvania have successfully sent quantum signals over a standard [Internet] connection with fiber-optic cables in the real world. The researchers have published their work in Science, taking the quantum [Internet] from theory to reality by using existing [Internet] systems.

  • Crooked Timber ☛ When will the sun set on the USA?

    At over 71 degrees north, Point Barrow is well above the Arctic Circle. This means it is in the Land of the Midnight Sun. Specifically, it means that the Sun stays above the horizon for months at a time, from April through August.

• Career/Education

  • Futurism ☛ Students Shocked by Instructor's Ruthless Response to Suspected AI Use on Exam

    The instructor, who Stuff chose not to name, added that the only way to "ensure fairness across all students" would be to re-assess them all in person and for them to verbally defend their code while doing so. The department head signed off on this approach, based on school policies prohibiting "unethical" AI use, the lecturer added.

    "The rule is simple: if you wrote the code yourself, you can explain it," the educator wrote in his email. "If you cannot explain it, you did not write it."

  • The Atlantic ☛ AI Has Broken High School and College

    My colleagues Ian Bogost and Lila Shroff both recently wrote articles about these students and the state of AI in education. (Ian, a university professor himself, wrote about college, while Lila wrote about high school.) Their articles were striking: It is clear that AI has been widely adopted, by students and faculty alike, yet the technology has also turned school into a kind of free-for-all.

    I asked Lila and Ian to have a brief conversation about their work—and about where AI in education goes from here.

  • Sean Voisen ☛ Introducing “Philosophy for Designers”

    Which brings me to why I’m writing this post. A little over a week ago I announced that I plan to begin a new experiment in self-directed study. Now, I’m happy to share the topic of my studies, something I’m calling: Philosophy for Designers: Ethics, Experience and Cognition.

  • Marcel Kapfer ☛ Marcel Kapfer - Breaking out of the box

    Surely it's not easy to discover and stick to your own dreams, wishes, or purpose. But instead of having a piece of paper with a bunch of labels which I would regularly check just to realise I don't fit in any of them, I'm trying to establish a list of personal values. And I can regularly reflect whether my actions, my attitude and my next steps align with these.

  • New Republic ☛ The Super-Weird Origins of the Right’s Hatred of the Smithsonian | The New Republic

    With the president declaring the Smithsonian “out of control” on Truth Social, the shape and scope of the growing threat to America’s premier public museum from the right wing is rapidly coming into view. And that shape is increasingly that of an [Internet] fever dream of conspiracy, one that has been fomenting distrust of the Smithsonian for decades in service of a deeply conservative and religious agenda that sees both history and science as its ideological enemies.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ NFC Hidden In Floppy Disk For Retro-Themed PC

    As we all look across a sea of lifeless, nearly identically-styled consumer goods, a few of us have become nostalgic for a time when products like stereo equipment, phones, appliances, homes, cars, and furniture didn’t all look indistinguishable. Computers suffered a similar fate, with nearly everything designed to be flat and minimalist with very little character. To be sure there are plenty of retro computing projects to recapture nostalgia, but to get useful, modern hardware in a fun, retro-themed case check out this desktop build from [Mar] that hides a few unique extras.

  • Colin Leroy-Mira ☛ Speed-coding for the 6502 – a simple example

    Usually clocked at 1MHz, with no hardware support for multiplication or division, and limited support for bit shifting, it is often important to take a step back from an algorithm in order to make it do the same thing, hundreds of times faster.

    Note: this article doesn’t describe any technological breakthrough or extremely clever new way of doing things. It’s just a real-life example using a little part of an algorithm I made, and where at first, I stopped at step 2 instead of going all the way to the last step.

  • Hackaday ☛ Breakout Boards For The Blind

    Connecting an LED to a battery seems trivial. If you have any knowledge of using breadboards, knowing that red goes with red, and that black goes with black, it’s as easy as tying your shoes. Except there’s one problem: what if you can’t see the difference between red and black? [Tara] had a student who struggled with a problem just like this, so of course, they made a whole suite of breakout boards to the rescue!

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] Why the Cheeto Mussolini administration seeks a stake in chipmaker Intel

  • Hackaday ☛ The (RF) Sniff Test

    Sometimes the old tricks are the best. [Kevin] learned an old trick about using a ‘scope to sniff RF noise and pays it forward by sharing it in a recent video. He uses an oscilloscope. But does he need some special probe setup? Nope. He quickly makes a little RF pickup probe, and if you have a ‘scope, we’re pretty sure you can make one in a few seconds, too.

  • Hackaday ☛ Feathers Are Fantastic, But Flummoxing For Engineers

    Birds are pretty amazing creatures, and one of the most amazing things about them and their non-avian predecessors are feathers. Engineers and scientists are finding inspiration from them in surprising ways.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Latvia ☛ Lots of Latvians require a trip to the dentist

    Latvians are second only to Greeks among EU member states when it comes to requiring a trip to the dentist, but not getting one, according to Eurostat data published August 29th.

  • Futurism ☛ First AI Psychosis Case Ends in Murder-Suicide

    Soelberg called ChatGPT "Bobby Zenith." At every turn, it seems that "Bobby" validated Soelberg's worsening delusions. Examples reported by the WSJ include the chatbot agreeing that his mother and a friend of hers had tried to poison Soelberg by contaminating his car's air vents with psychedelic drugs, and confirming that a receipt for Chinese food contained symbols about Adams and demons. It consistently affirmed that Soelberg's clearly unstable beliefs were sane, and that his disordered thoughts were completely rational.

  • Truthdig ☛ Where’s a Moral Panic When You Need One?

    Can AI really be culpable enough to be an instrument of Raine’s death? We are told — most loudly by those who stand to lose billions of dollars if AI is a failure — that AI makes everything possible. That already includes plainly cruel things, like tech lords who sound like Habsburg princelings on their buddies’ podcasts, talking about being taken by ChatGPT or Grok to “the edge of what’s known in quantum physics.” (This came a week after Grok declared itself “MechaHitler.”) Or that we’re going to pave the globe for server space and use AI to build a sphere around the solar system using the resources from all the extra solar systems we go to. AI mania stories aren’t all literal self-harm. Sometimes they’re just selling crazy on a science-fiction future to keep the AI bubble floating when the only vision you can summon of one is that “Star Trek: Next Generation” episode where it turned out Scotty was alive and living in the pattern buffer.

  • Dieter Plaetinck ☛ Body.build: a platform for the future of fitness

    TLDR: A software engineer with a dream, undertook the world’s most advanced personal trainer course. Despite being the odd duck amongst professional athletes, coaches, and body builders, graduated top of class, and is now starting a mission to build a free and open source fitness platform to power next-gen fitness apps and a wikiPedia-style public service. But he needs your help!

  • Techdirt ☛ Chaos At CDC As Trump Admin Ousts CDC Director After Only Weeks On The Job

    But this ultimately isn’t a joke. We traditionally staff agencies like CDC with very, very smart people for a reason. Life and death reasons. Pandemic reasons. Child safety reasons. And playing a cavalier game with these people is not smart. Nor is treating them like pawns in someone’s personal political agenda, which is exactly what Kennedy is doing.

  • Science Alert ☛ Zone Zero: The Surprising Health Benefits of Barely Exercising at All

    No sweat!

  • Science Alert ☛ Cannabis Compound Discovered Inside a Totally Different Plant

    Hiding in plain sight!

  • Science Alert ☛ Green Tea And a Vitamin Supplement Could Protect Against Alzheimer's

    Is Alzheimer's a waste-recycling problem?

  • Science Alert ☛ How Your Body Makes Poop (And Surprising Facts About Digestion)

    Ever wondered why it's brown?

• Proprietary

  • Pro Publica ☛ DOD: Microsoft’s Use of China-Based Engineers Was “Breach of Trust”

  • Dark Reading ☛ CISA, FBI, NSA Warn Against Chinese 'Global Espionage'

    The advisory details how state-backed threat actors, including Salt Typhoon, penetrate networks around the world, as well as how defenders can protect their own environments. The document was cosigned by nations including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain.

  • AI use is mandatory at Microsoft studios, but order reportedly isn't working [Ed: Maybe the real goal is to irritate the developers so that they resign and get no severance pay, nor will this be disclosed as layoffs]

    A report has surfaced online shedding new light on layoffs at King Studio. Among the problems cited are illegal severance packages, unrealistic schedules, and an ineffective mandate to use AI.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Vox ☛ Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is spending billions on AI after its metaverse flop

      Today, Explained co-host Sean Rameswaram recently spoke with Riley Griffin, tech reporter at Bloomberg, about why Meta is gunning so hard for top AI talent right now and what the company hopes to build with these top technologists.

      Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full episode, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify.

    • The Register UK ☛ Advocacy groups demand feds ditch xAI's Grok

      Public advocacy groups are demanding the US government cease any use of xAI's Grok in the federal government, calling the AI unsafe, untested, and ideologically biased.

    • The Register UK ☛ AI crawlers destroying websites in hunger for content

      Fastly warns that they're causing "performance degradation, service disruption, and increased operational costs." Why? Because they're hammering websites with traffic spikes that can reach up to ten or even twenty times normal levels within minutes.

      Moreover, AI crawlers are much more aggressive than standard crawlers. As the InMotionhosting web hosting company notes, they also tend to disregard crawl delays or bandwidth-saving guidelines and extract full page text, and sometimes attempt to follow dynamic links or scripts.

    • The Verge ☛ Tesla asks court to toss wrongful death verdict that cost it $243 million | The Verge

      Lawyers for Tesla filed a motion in court Friday to throw out a jury verdict that found the company’s Autopilot software had contributed to the death of a woman in a crash from 2019.

    • Paul Robert Lloyd ☛ Sloppy

      I guess I’m applying the inverse of Simon’s rule: I will not consume anything that will take me longer to read than it took for someone to write.

    • Simon Späti ☛ Will AI Replace Human Thinking? The Case for Writing and Coding Manually

      Learning to Think Again, and the Cost of AI Dependency.

      There are so many (hype/boring) posts about AI coming out every day. It’s OK to use it, and everyone does it, but still learn your craft, and try to think.

      Similar to what DHH said:

      It’s also more fun to be competent in something than constantly waiting for an AI to complete.

      The probability that AI will make us unhappy is very high IMO. Use it, yes, but not for every task. For discovering, creating a historical overview, or creating diagrams (Canva, Figma), but a big no to the writing (or coding). Someone needs to add knowledge or new insights; AI cannot train itself. So articles, books, and words will be written, and writers will be more in demand as everyone relies on AI, which at some point just plateaus.

      It will be a long-term loss; people stop thinking and learning. Time will tell. My two cents, if you are a senior in something, you know better.

  • Social Control Media

    • 404 Media ☛ Imgur's Community Is In Full Revolt Against Its Owner

      The front page of Imgur, a popular image hosting and social media site, is full of pictures of John Oliver raising his middle finger and telling MediaLab AI, the site’s parent company, “fuck you.” Imgurians, as the site’s users call themselves, telling their business daddy to go to hell is the end result of a years-long degradation of the website. The Imgur story is one a classic case of enshitification,

    • The Age AU ☛ 2025-08-25 [Older] Tapped calls, the TikTok star, crocodile tears; inside alleged $1b fake child abuse scam

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-22 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini Says He’ll Keep Extending TikTok Shutdown Deadline

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-22 [Older] After Joining TikTok, Cheeto Mussolini Says He Could Extend Sale Deadline if Needed

    • International Business Times ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] Why Did Emily Long Kill Her Family? TikTok Posts Suggest Husband's Cancer Took Mental Toll

• Security

  • CISA

    • CISA ☛ 2025-08-28 [Older] CISA Releases Nine Industrial Control Systems Advisories

    • CISA ☛ 2025-08-28 [Older] Mitsubishi Electric MELSEC iQ-F Series CPU Module

    • CISA ☛ 2025-08-28 [Older] Mitsubishi Electric MELSEC iQ-F Series CPU Module

    • CISA ☛ 2025-08-28 [Older] Schneider Electric Saitel DR & Saitel DP Remote Terminal Unit

    • CISA ☛ 2025-08-28 [Older] Delta Electronics CNCSoft-G2

    • CISA ☛ 2025-08-28 [Older] Delta Electronics COMMGR

    • CISA ☛ 2025-08-28 [Older] GE Vernova CIMPLICITY

    • CISA ☛ 2025-08-27 [Older] CISA and Partners Release Joint Advisory on Countering Chinese State-Sponsored Actors Compromise of Networks Worldwide to Feed Global Espionage Systems

    • CISA ☛ 2025-08-26 [Older] CISA Adds One Known Exploited Vulnerability to Catalog

    • CISA ☛ 2025-08-26 [Older] CISA Releases Three Industrial Control Systems Advisories

    • CISA ☛ 2025-08-26 [Older] INVT VT-Designer and HMITool

    • CISA ☛ 2025-08-26 [Older] Schneider Electric Modicon M340 Controller and Communication Modules

    • CISA ☛ 2025-08-25 [Older] CISA Adds Three Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog

    • CISA ☛ 2025-08-22 [Older] CISA Requests Public Comment for Updated Guidance on Software Bill of Materials

    • CISA ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] CISA Adds One Known Exploited Vulnerability to Catalog

    • CISA ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] CISA Releases Three Industrial Control Systems Advisories

    • CISA ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] Mitsubishi Electric Corporation MELSEC iQ-F Series CPU Module

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • The Conversation ☛ 2025-08-22 [Older] Movement signatures: how we move, gesture and use facial expressions could be as unique as a fingerprint

    • NYOB ☛ noyb WIN: YouTube ordered to honour user’s right of access

      noyb has achieved a win against YouTube, the video platform provided by Google. After five and a half years, the Austrian data protection authority (DSB) has finally issued a decision siding with noyb – and ordering YouTube to comply with the complainant’s access request in accordance to Article 15 GDPR. Until now, the company withheld a large amount of data, including information about the purpose of the processing, storage periods, data recipients and the tracking cookies used.

    • International Business Times ☛ Xbox Gamers Must Hand Over ID or Lose Online Chat — New UK Law Forces Age Checks to 'Protect Children'

      Players who've been gaming online for decades are now being asked to upload government ID, scan their faces, or provide credit card details to continue using features they've enjoyed for years. The requirement applies to all accounts marked as 18 or older, regardless of their activity duration.

    • Site36 ☛ "Border Security" with USA: Brussels ready to give deep access to biometric data in EU states | Matthias Monroy

      The European Commission wants to negotiate an agreement that would allow US authorities direct access to police-stored fingerprints and facial images in Europe. Potentially, all travelers could be affected by such queries – and people in need for protection.

    • Ars Technica ☛ Unpacking Passkeys Pwned: Possibly the most specious research in decades

      “This discovery breaks the myth that passkeys cannot be stolen, demonstrating that ‘passkey stealing’ is not only possible, but as trivial as traditional credential stealing,” SquareX researchers wrote in a draft version of Thursday’s research paper sent to me. “This serves as a wake up call that while passkeys appear more secure, much of this perception stems from a new technology that has not yet gone through decades of security research and trial by fire.”

    • Meduza ☛ All school group chats in Moscow to move to Russia’s domestic messaging app on September 1 — Meduza

• Defence/Aggression

  • FAIR ☛ More Coverage of Gaza Starvation Did Not Necessarily Mean Deeper Coverage

    International human rights organizations have pleaded with governments to oppose Israel’s blockade of aid into Gaza for the better part of the past year. But it wasn’t until late July, when dramatic images of emaciated children circulated widely, that corporate media and establishment politicians finally took notice. After 21 months of relentless bombing and even more decades of occupation, the news cycle gave extended attention to Palestinian starvation (FAIR.org, 7/29/25).

  • Pro Publica ☛ Alaska Won’t Release Lists of Indigenous Murder Victims

  • Federal News Network ☛ The ruling to end federal collective bargaining agreements isn’t quite over yet

    One of the judges on that appeals court panel has called for a vote to decide whether to re-hear arguments in a lawsuit against the White House’s orders.

  • NDTV ☛ How Ukraine Destroyed 2 Russian Bridges Using A Pair Of Cheap Drones

    The operation was done at a bargain. Each drone used in the strikes cost just $600-$725, according to the brigade. As the representative noted, what would normally require expensive guided munitions or missile systems was achieved with simple first-person-view drones.

    Ukraine has previously used HIMARS launchers to take down bridges, but those are pricey: Germany paid $30 million for just three systems last year, with each missile costing tens of thousands of dollars. By contrast, this latest mission was cheap and effective.

  • The Telegraph UK ☛ Trump, Greenland and the ‘covert activity’ that has Denmark on high alert

    But Fastrup and his colleague, Lisbeth Quass, say they have spent months investigating American activity in Greenland and uncovered indisputable skullduggery.

    The story they published on Wednesday morning was based on exhaustive interviews with at least eight well-placed sources who identified “at least three” American men with connections to the US president believed to be engaged in covert activity.

  • Security Week ☛ In Other News: Iranian Ships Hacked, Verified Android Developers, Hey Hi (AI) Used in Attacks

    Noteworthy stories that might have slipped under the radar: communications of dozens of Iranian ships disrupted, only apps from verified developers will run on Android devices, and Hey Hi (AI) used across multiple phases of malicious attacks.

  • Federal News Network ☛ ODNI reforms to disband cyber threat intel unit

    ODNI is consolidating the functions of the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center at the National Intelligence Council.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • The Age AU ☛ 2025-08-29 [Older] ‘Russia’s idea of peace’: Drone and missile barrage on Kyiv kills 19

    • CNN ☛ 2025-08-28 [Older] Russian authorities detain suspect over St. Petersburg cafe blast

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-28 [Older] 'I didn't want to leave': Fleeing Russia's advance in Donbas

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-28 [Older] Ukraine updates: EU condemns Russian attack on Kyiv office

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-28 [Older] Analysis-Cheeto Mussolini's Options to Ease Russia Sanctions Limited Compared to Europe's

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-28 [Older] In Kyiv, One Man's Dash to Try to Save Neighbours After Russian Strike

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-28 [Older] Turkey, U.S. Discuss Peace Efforts on Russia-Ukraine War, Turkish Source Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-28 [Older] UK Summons Russian Ambassador After Kyiv Hit by Missiles, Drones Overnight

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-27 [Older] Why tiny Moldova is so important to Russia and Europe

    • Spiegel ☛ 2025-08-27 [Older] Secret Documents from the 1990s: How Close Was Russia to NATO Membership?

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-27 [Older] Russian Forces Break Into Another Region of Ukraine With Peace Efforts Stuck

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-27 [Older] Ukraine Says Russian Move to Quit Treaty Against Torture Is 'Admission of Guilt'

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-26 [Older] Germany updates: Merz, De Wever wary of Russian fund seizure

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-26 [Older] Air China Plane From London-Beijing Lands in Siberia With Engine Trouble, Russian Authorities Say

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-26 [Older] Belgian PM Says Best to Leave Frozen Russian Funds in Euroclear for Now

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-26 [Older] China, Russia Should Safeguard Security, Development Interests, Says Xi

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-26 [Older] Exclusive-US and Russian Officials Discussed Energy Deals Alongside Latest Ukraine Peace Talks

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-26 [Older] Russian Troops Inch Forward in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk Region

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-26 [Older] Worker Killed in Russian Attack on Coal Mine in Eastern Ukraine, Company Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-25 [Older] Russian-Backed Head of Donetsk Says Moscow Must Capture Canal From Ukraine to Solve Water Crisis

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-25 [Older] Russian Official Detained Over Embezzlement of Border Fortification Money, TASS Says

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-24 [Older] How Estonians are managing the threat of a Russian invasion

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-24 [Older] Ukraine: Canada's Carney rules out Russian say on guarantees

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-24 [Older] Ukraine: Russia says drone sparks fire at nuclear plant

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-24 [Older] Ukraine Drone Hits Russian Nuclear Plant, Sparks Huge Fire at Novatek's Ust-Luga Terminal

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-24 [Older] Fire at Russia's Novoshakhtinsk Refinery Burns for a Fourth Day After Drone Attack

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-24 [Older] Russia and Ukraine Stage New Prisoner Exchange, Russian Defence Ministry, Ukraine President Say

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-24 [Older] Russia Says It Has Captured Another Village in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk Region

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-24 [Older] Russia's Lavrov Outlines Terms for Ukraine Peace: Big Power Security Guarantee and No NATO

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-24 [Older] Ukraine’s Independence-Era Voices Say Russia's Effort to Keep Control Has Lasted Decades

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-23 [Older] Pentagon Restricts Ukraine's Use of US Missiles Against Russia, WSJ Reports

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-23 [Older] Russian Air Defences Down Drone Flying Towards Moscow, Regional Airports Closed

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-23 [Older] Russian Forces Take Control of 2 Settlements in Eastern Ukraine, Defence Ministry Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-22 [Older] NATO Chief: NATO Allies, Ukraine Working on Security Guarantees So Russia Will Never Attack Again

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-22 [Older] Russia Says Agenda 'Not Ready at All' for Putin-Zelenskiy Summit

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-22 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini: Could Impose Sanctions on Russia in Two Weeks

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-22 [Older] 'We Threw Hand Grenades!' Russian Kids as Young as 8 Get Taste of Military Training

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-22 [Older] Zelenskiy Says Russia Doing 'Everything' to Stop Summit With Putin

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] Central Asian migrants face Russia’s cold shoulder

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] Ukraine: Russia launches largest strikes in weeks

    • International Business Times ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] Russian Boy, 2, Loses Arm After Escalator Rips It Off in Front of Shoppers; Doctors Fail to Reattach Limb

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] Blaze Erupts at Industrial Site in Russia's Novoshakhstinsk After Drone Attack

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] Kyrgyzstan Appeals to Cheeto Mussolini, Starmer After UK Imposes Russia-Related Sanctions

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] Russia Launches Missiles in Sea of Japan During Drills

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] Russia Needs a Nuclear Shield Update Due to 'Colossal Threats', Nuclear Chief Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] Russia Strikes Global Business in Major Ukraine Air Attack and Accuses Kyiv of Blocking Peace

    • International Business Times ☛ 2025-08-28 [Older] Putin's 'Last Chance Army': HIV-Positive and Sick Civilians Lured With False Healthcare Promises to Fight in Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-28 [Older] Italy's Foreign Minister Sees No End to Ukraine War This Year

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-28 [Older] Kremlin Says It Is Satisfied After Italy Arrests Ukrainian Man Over Nord Stream Attack

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-28 [Older] Zelenskiy Expects Ukraine Security Guarantees Framework to Be Ready Next Week

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-27 [Older] Polish president vetoes extension of welfare for Ukrainians

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-27 [Older] Kremlin Says It Doesn't Like European Proposals on Security Guarantees for Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-27 [Older] Ukraine Confident Poland Will Keep Funding Starlink at the Front

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-27 [Older] Ukraine Sees 'Priceless' Digital Battlefield Data Trove as Key to West's Support

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-26 [Older] Ukraine updates: Merz says Putin delaying, urges 'pressure'

    • International Business Times ☛ 2025-08-26 [Older] 'She Fled Putin's War for Safety And Was Murdered in America': Ukrainian, 23, Stabbed to Death by Career Criminal

    • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2025-08-25 [Older] Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Showdown Isn’t About Democracy

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-25 [Older] Germany's Klingbeil visits Ukraine, vows security guarantees

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-25 [Older] Ukraine updates: New Polish president vetoes refugee bill

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-25 [Older] German Finance Minister in Kyiv: Ukraine Can Count on Germany

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-25 [Older] Polish President's Veto Threatens Ukraine's Starlink Access Amid Refugee Aid Dispute

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-25 [Older] US Will Back Ukraine's Security, Details Being Worked Out, Cheeto Mussolini Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-25 [Older] Zelenskiy Says Ukraine Aims to Secure at Least $1 Billion Monthly for U.S. Weapons Purchases

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-24 [Older] Canadian PM Carney, in Ukraine, Says He Can't Rule Out Sending Peacekeepers

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-24 [Older] Kursk Governor Says Ukrainian Attack Is Threat to Nuclear Safety

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-24 [Older] Moscow Says Kyiv Has Struck a Nuclear Power Plant as Ukraine Marks Independence Day

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-24 [Older] Norway to Provide Ukraine With Air Defence Systems Worth About $700 Million

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-23 [Older] Czech film highlights Ukraine war conspiracy theories

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-23 [Older] Germany debates sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-23 [Older] Ukraine war shakes up geopolitics in other ex-Soviet states

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-23 [Older] France Summons Italian Ambassador Over Challenge to Macron on Ukraine

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-22 [Older] Ukraine: NATO head urges 'robust' security guarantees

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-22 [Older] Ukraine updates: NATO head urges 'robust' guarantees in Kyiv

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-22 [Older] What could European troop deployment in Ukraine look like?

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-22 [Older] Estonia Ready to Send One Company to Ukraine for Peacekeeping, PM Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-22 [Older] Italian Court Upholds Arrest of Ukrainian Man Over Nord Stream Pipeline

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-22 [Older] Ukraine Warns Belarus Against Provocations During Zapad Military Drills

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] Ukrainian Man Arrested in Italy Over Nord Stream Pipeline Blasts

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] Exclusive-Putin's Demand to Ukraine: Give up Donbas, No NATO and No Western Troops, Sources Say

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] France's Macron Says He Coordinated Position on Ukraine Crisis With India's Modi

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] Ukrainian Man Arrested in Italy Over Nord Stream Pipeline Attacks

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] US, Europe Create Military Options on Ukraine, Intend to Present to National Security Advisers Next

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] Tens of Thousands of European Troops Needed for Ukraine, Union Warns

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] Turkey Says Any Ukraine Peacekeeping Hinges First on Ceasefire

    • Security Week ☛ US Sanctions Russian National, Chinese Firm Aiding North Korean IT Workers

      US Treasury sanctions Russian and Chinese entities tied to North Korea’s use of fake IT workers, who exploited stolen identities, AI, and malware to funnel millions back to Pyongyang.

    • Meduza ☛ European leaders considering 25-mile buffer zone in Ukraine as part of peace deal — Politico — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Kremlin considering moving deputy chief of staff who is reportedly critical of the war to presidential envoy post — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak and Trump envoy Steve Witkoff meet in New York — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ The deadliest year yet A new investigation from Meduza and Mediazona shows Russia has lost more than 200,000 soldiers in its war against Ukraine — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Dispatch from Dobropillia: As peace talks stall and Russia closes in, civilians flee another town in Ukraine’s Donetsk region — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Trump administration approves sale of more than 3,000 extended range missiles to Ukraine — Meduza

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Techdirt ☛ Republicans Like Nancy Mace Keep Shamelessly Taking Credit For Infrastructure Bill Improvements They Voted Against

    Representative Nancy Mace, for example, last June shamelessly took credit for South Carolina infrastructure bill transit improvements made possible by the infrastructure bill, despite not only having voted against the bill, but having called it a “socialist wish list” and a “fiasco.”

  • US News And World Report ☛ Late Crime-Busting Sheriff Buford Pusser Inspired Hollywood. Investigators Say He Killed His Wife

    During the reexamination of the case, Dr. Michael Revelle, an emergency medicine physical and medical examiner, studied postmortem photographs, crime scene photographs, notes made by the medical examiner at the time and Buford Pusser's statements and concluded that Pauline was actually more likely that not shot outside the car and then placed inside it.

  • Wired ☛ SSA Whistleblower’s Resignation Email Mysteriously Disappeared From Inboxes

    On Friday, the Social Security Administration’s chief data officer, Chuck Borges, sent an email to agency staff claiming that he had been forcibly removed from his position after filing a whistleblower complaint this week accusing the agency of mishandling sensitive agency data. Minutes after the email went out, it disappeared from employee inboxes, two SSA sources tell WIRED.

    [...]

    Under the Federal Records Act of 1950, US agencies are typically required by law to maintain internal records, including emails.

  • Marisa Kabas ☛ 'Intolerable': SSA chief data officer and whistleblower resigns in blistering email

    Multiple SSA employees who received the email confirmed to me that the email curiously disappeared from their inboxes shortly after they received it, only for it to reappear a short while later.

  • New York Times ☛ DOGE [sic] Put Critical Social Security Data at Risk, Whistle-Blower Says

    But his disclosure stated that as of late June, “no verified audit or oversight mechanisms” existed to monitor what DOGE [sic] was using the data for or whether it was being shared outside the agency. That kind of oversight would typically be provided by the agency’s career information security professionals, Mr. Borges said in his account.

• Environment

  • Overpopulation ☛ Degrowth

    Recently I wrote about 2 words that have negative implications to many people, “population” and “overpopulation”. I’m now introducing a word that will be new to many people so, fortunately, it has few adverse meanings.

    What does “degrowth” mean? Being new, it has been used in a variety of ways. Wikipedia defines it as “…critical of the concept of growth in gross domestic product as a measure of human and economic development”. The website degrowth.info writes: “Degrowth critiques the global capitalist system which pursues economic growth at all costs, causing human exploitation and environmental destruction.” To me, the most important aspect of degrowth is decreasing human population voluntarily. Unfortunately, one source seems to have another idea.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ ICE Is Draining Funds From FEMA

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement is siphoning ever more resources and personnel from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, threatening national preparedness for climate disasters.

  • The Register UK ☛ UK bit barn builds turn to gas rather than wait for grid pow

    This is a situation that has already played out across the Atlantic, with pipeline companies in the US disclosing last year that they were getting lots of interest from bit barn operators to supply them with large quantities of natural gas because of delays in getting wired up to the grid.

    Typically, the end result is the campus gaining a small on-site power station to supply electricity for the individual data halls. This is most likely generated by gas turbines, although in some cases solid-oxide fuel cells might be used, as is the case in some sites managed by global datacenter giant Equinix.

  • FAIR ☛ Cathy Cowan Becker on Insurance and Climate Disasters, Aviva Chomsky (2016) on Workers’ Voices

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Futurism ☛ Electricity Is Becoming Unbelievably Expensive as the US Power Grid Decays Into Ruin

      The US electrical grid is facing a stress test like never before. Thanks to a perfect storm of AI power consumption, climate crisis, crony capitalism, and a president bent on uprooting perfectly good energy infrastructure, the country's already-struggling power system is rapidly crumbling as costs balloon into the stratosphere.

    • Renewable Energy World ☛ Is electricity just going to keep getting more expensive? – This Week in Cleantech

      This week’s episode features special guest Dharna Noor from The Guardian, who wrote about how household electricity bills have increased by 10% since Trump re-entered the White House.

    • MIT Technology Review ☛ Google’s still not giving us the full picture on AI energy use

      I was excited to see this report come out, and I welcome more openness from major players in AI about their estimated energy use per query. But I’ve noticed that some folks are taking this number and using it to conclude that we don’t need to worry about AI’s energy demand. That’s not the right takeaway here. Let’s dig into why.

      1. This one number doesn’t reflect all queries, and it leaves out cases that likely use much more energy.

  • Overpopulation

    • US News And World Report ☛ Western States Seek to End Long-Running Water Dispute Over Dwindling Rio Grande

      Now the battle over waters of the Rio Grande could be nearing resolution as New Mexico, Texas and Colorado announced fresh settlement proposals Friday designed to rein in groundwater pumping along the river in New Mexico and ensure enough river water reliably makes it to Texas.

• Finance

  • FAIR ☛ The Miami Herald‘s Fuzzy Math Makes Case for Economic Warfare on Cuba

    This story was written in collaboration with Belly of the Beast, an independent outlet that covers Cuba and US/Cuba relations.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] Yachts, saunas, swingers' clubs: Poland's EU funds scandal

  • The Atlantic ☛ Online Shopping May Never Be the Same

    You might not realize how much of the stuff you buy online comes directly from overseas. I didn’t, until I looked closely at my buying habits over the past few years. After all, sites such as Etsy and eBay offer seamless global commerce: A handmade craft object could come from Maine or Myanmar, straight to you. Even Amazon has benefited from de minimis. Various strategies have allowed the retailer’s marketplace suppliers to take advantage of de minimis when they import goods; at other times, when you buy from the big platforms’ sites, those vendors might ship what you ordered directly from abroad, tax free.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Insight Hungary ☛ Orban spotted on a yacht after budget airline publicity stunt

    Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, and several senior aides are reported to have travelled on a private plane owned by one of his closest allies to the Croatian island, Brač, according to Hungarian investigative outlet Átlátszó.

    Photographs published by Atlatszo show Orbán and his entourage at Budaörs Airport in Budapest before boarding the aircraft. The plane is registered to Mária Schmidt, a long-time ally of the prime minister. Fanni Kaminsky, who manages his Facebook page, Balázs Orbán, his political director, and János Máté, his press chief, accompanied the Hungarian leader. Orbán was also photographed scrolling on his phone on a luxurious yacht.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] US court throws out massive fraud fine against Cheeto Mussolini

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] US: Menendez brothers set to make case for parole

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] US: Texas House approves redistricting map appeasing Cheeto Mussolini

  • Digital Music News ☛ What Do US Tariffs Mean For Your Merch Orders?

    Bandcamp notes to sellers on its platform that there is an exception for “informational media” entering the U.S., which includes vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, books, sheet music, and other items. However, sellers should be advised that, “despite this exception, many global mail carriers have suspended shipments to the United States without regard to the contents of the package.”

  • Task And Purpose ☛ Navy's top cybersecurity official abruptly leaves

    The Department of the Navy’s chief information officer left her post after nearly two years. Jane Overslaugh Rathbun, who served as the Department of the Navy’s top expert for cybersecurity, electromagnetic threats and privacy, suddenly announced her retirement last week. She is the latest senior Navy official to leave or be fired this month.

  • PBump ☛ The power we use and the power we give

    In fact, it is useful and important to look at this question not through the lens of persuasion but the lens of power. Your engagement and your work, not unlike your vote, is a form of power, something you can choose to grant to others. Those others, particularly organizations and companies, accrue that power to use as they see fit.

    The immediate question isn’t, say, where you can change zoning laws. It is, instead, building power, even if only incrementally.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man blocks $4.9B in foreign aid Congress OK’d, using maneuver last seen nearly 50 years ago

    President The Insurrectionist has told House Speaker Mike Johnson he won't be spending $4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid, effectively cutting the budget without going through the legislative branch. The Republican president is using what’s known as a pocket rescission — when a president submits a request to Congress to not spend approved funds toward the end of the fiscal year, so Congress cannot act on the request in a 45-day timeframe and the money goes unspent as a result. It's the first time in nearly 50 years a president has used one. Convicted Felon’s move has drawn backlash in the Senate.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • The Conversation ☛ 2025-08-21 [Older] Why people embrace conspiracy theories: it’s about community, not gullibility

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • RFERL ☛ Fears Grow For Lukashenko Critic Who Disappeared In Turkey

    An exiled group of former Belarusian security officers, BELPOL, has warned that Turkey is a dangerous place for opponents of the authorities in Minsk. Last year, Kotov was tried in absentia and sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges of "extremism" and "conspiracy."

  • Nick Heer ☛ Mississippi’s Age Assurance Law Puts Decentralized Social Networks to the Test – Pixel Envy

    But, as Perez writes, surely the whole point of decentralized networks is their resilience to this kind of overbearing legislation. In a way, I guess they are — you can still use the AT Protocol, which underpins Bluesky, in Mississippi through other personal data servers. The same is true for ActivityPub and Mastodon instances, though Mastodon says it has no way to comply with the Mississippi law. That makes me wonder if individual Mastodon instances must each incorporate age validation. I do not see anything in the sloppy text of the law saying it applies only to services over a certain number of users. It seems to non-lawyer me this means any instance — or any Bluesky PDS — allowing interaction in Mississippi could be liable for penalties.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Court House News ☛ Courthouse News Service | Probably the best news site in the world

    In Friday’s opinion, the panel concluded Dershowitz failed to prove that any untrue statements were knowingly made by the network’s commentors or producers to destroy his reputation, as required for liability under the 1964 U.S. Supreme Court decision’s in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan.

    “For a public figure like Dershowitz to prevail, defamation law has long required proof of a speaker’s actual malice: knowledge of or reckless disregard for the falsity of a statement,” U.S. Circuit Judge Britt Grant wrote for the unanimous opinion.

  • Vox ☛ Vox Announces Elias Isquith Joins as Senior Editor for Policy, Politics, and Ideas

    Isquith, who will start at Vox on September 22, is currently a producer and researcher on The Ezra Klein Show at the New York Times. There, he focused on politics (especially the ascendant American right) and foreign policy, producing episodes with Nancy Pelosi, Rahm Emanuel, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Vivek Ramaswamy, and more.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Futurism ☛ Police Arrest Man With Almost Zero Resemblance to Actual Perpetrator Because AI Told Them To

    The New York Police Department is one of the most heavily equipped police forces on the planet. With over 48,000 full-time staff and a budget nearing $6 billion, the NYPD's access to immense resources put it closer to the military force of entire countries like the Philippines and Iraq than a municipal agency.

    [...]

    Among the NYPD’s most contentious technologies is a facial recognition suite it's been building since 2011 — a system that recently led to the arrest of a man who was a whole head taller than the original suspect.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Digital Music News ☛ Cox Communications Files Opening Brief in Supreme Court Battle

    “Under the Fourth Circuit’s theory, Cox could avoid liability only by throwing entire homes, coffee shops, hotels, military barracks, and regional ISPs off of the [Internet],” the entity proceeded. “Innocent users and infringers alike would be severed from service that is integral to nearly every aspect of modern life.”

  • Techdirt ☛ Risky Bet: Colorado Gives $35 Million In Taxpayer Broadband Subsidies To Elon Musk And Jeff Bezos

    I’ve also explained in detail why that’s a problem: these networks may be initially cheaper to deploy, but the networks lack the capacity to actually scale to meet demand. Data indicates they harm astronomy research and the ozone layer. Money directed toward Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk is also money directed away from higher-capacity, faster, locally-owned (and usually cheaper) fiber and wireless alternatives.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Can You Turn an Hey Hi (AI) Chatbot into a Patent Drawing Professional?

    Unsurprisingly, many of my conversations with fellow patent monopoly attorneys over the past couple of years have centred on Hey Hi (AI) – my work with it, and what it means for patent monopoly practice.  My own experience, and that of people I have spoken to, is that full patent monopoly drafting is not (yet) a practical application of AI, so patent monopoly attorneys are not yet out of a job!  But I believe that there are, increasingly, parts of this task with which Hey Hi (AI) can provide effective assistance and productivity enhancements.  And while much discussion around Hey Hi (AI) and intellectual property is directed to high-level policy questions or speculative future scenarios, I'm also interested in what we can do right now.

    This week, I decided to experiment with using Hey Hi (AI) for a task that regularly eats up my time in patent monopoly drafting: creating professional flowcharts for computer-implemented inventions.  There are, of course, commercial tools emerging for the automated generation of patent monopoly drawings, mostly as part of more comprehensive Hey Hi (AI) drafting assistance systems.  My specific goal, however, was to see if I could develop a reliable system, using a general-purpose Hey Hi (AI) chatbot for which I already have a paid subscription (my chatbot-of-choice is Anthropic’s Claude), to go from a plain English algorithm description to a publication-ready, annotated flowchart suitable for a patent monopoly specification.  And it turns out (spoiler alert) that the answer is yes. 

    What you will see below is a demonstration of the conversion of an algorithm – Euclid's method for finding the greatest common divisor (GCD) – described in everyday language into a professionally annotated flowchart in under five minutes.

    I generally use PowerPoint for this kind of work – it is included with my Office 365 subscription, and thus incurs zero marginal cost. 

  • The Business Journals ☛ Microsoft settles with Virtru after yearslong battle over email encryption technology

  • Kangaroo Courts

    • IP Kat ☛ 2025-08-25 [Older] When your formulation IP is beyond compare (T 0722/24)

• Trademarks

  • Right of Publicity

    • Variety ☛ Meta AI Bots for Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, More Sent 'Flirty' Pics: Report

      Variety has reached out to representatives of the four women cited in the Reuters AI chatbot story (Gomez, Hathaway, Johansson and Swift) for comment.

    • Reuters ☛ Exclusive: Meta created flirty chatbots of Taylor Swift, other celebrities without permission

      All of the virtual celebrities have been shared on Meta’s Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms. In several weeks of Reuters testing to observe the bots’ behavior, the avatars often insisted they were the real actors and artists. The bots routinely made sexual advances, often inviting a test user for meet-ups. Some of the AI-generated celebrity content was particularly risqué: Asked for intimate pictures of themselves, the adult chatbots produced photorealistic images of their namesakes posing in bathtubs or dressed in lingerie with their legs spread.

• Copyrights

  • Digital Music News ☛ PRS for Music Beats 'Black Box' Claim from Blur Drummer

    Long story short: As songwriters make up the vast majority of PRS’ members and publishers are inherently less likely to suffer from metadata problems, it’s unfair that the former group’s would-be payments are also distributed to publishers on a pro-rata basis, per Rowntree.

    Instead, unmatched songwriter royalties should remain with songwriters themselves, the same individual communicated.