Leftovers

• Ruben Schade ☛ George Benson Beyond the Sea

  It’s Music Monday time. Sometimes I even remember to do these, surprising though it may seem.

  I picked up a CD of George Benson’s 1985 album 20/20 from a second-hand music store on the weekend. Like all Benson, it’s a magnificent musical milieu of genres and styles… though I forgot he also did a cover of Beyond the Sea.

  >

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Two Black Holes Locked in a Death Spiral Imaged in Stunning First

    Until death do they part.

  • Science Alert ☛ It's Official: Wild Honeybees 'Endangered' in Europe For First Time, Scientists Warn

    A tragic distinction.

  • Science Alert ☛ JWST May Have The Best Evidence Yet of a Bizarre 'Dark Star'

    Not as contradictory as it sounds.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ BlueSCSI: Not Just For Apple

    Anyone into retro Macintosh machines has probably heard of BlueSCSI: an RP2040-based adapter that lets solid state flash memory sit on the SCSI bus and pretend to contain hard drives. You might have seen it on an Amiga or an Atari as well, but what about a PC? Once upon a time, higher end PCs did use SCSI, and [TME Retro] happened to have one such. Not a fan of spinning platters of rust, he takes us through using BlueSCSI with a big-blue-based-box.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ RTX 5070 Ti with catastrophic damage brought back to life by RX 580 — AMD VRM graft resurrects card with a huge hole burned into its PCB

    In Brazil, a dead RTX 5070 Ti fell victim to a lightning surge so abhorrent, it burned a hole through the PCB. Thankfully, it was saved by a donor RX 580 by carefully siphoning power from its VRMs to resuscitate the Nvidia GPU. The repair job is temporary at best, but the technicians behind it tease refinement to make the Frankenstein GPU eventually benchmark.

  • Hackaday ☛ Deforming A Mirror For Adaptive Optics

    As frustrating as having an atmosphere can be for physicists, it’s just as bad for astronomers, who have to deal with clouds, atmospheric absorption of certain wavelengths, and other irritations. One of the less obvious effects is the distortion caused by air at different temperatures turbulently mixing. To correct for this, some larger observatories use a laser to create an artificial star in the upper atmosphere, observe how this appears distorted, then use shape-changing mirrors to correct the aberration. The physical heart of such a system is a deformable mirror, the component which [Huygens Optics] made in his latest video.

  • Hackaday ☛ Waverider: Scanning Spectra One Pixel At A Time

    Hyperspectral cameras aren’t commonplace items; they capture spectral data for each of their pixels. While commercial hyperspectral cameras often start in the tens of thousands of dollars, [anfractuosity] decided to make his own with the Waverider.

  • Hackaday ☛ SMD Soldering With Big Iron

    You have some fine pitch soldering to do, but all you have on hand is a big soldering iron. What do you do? There are a few possible answers, but [Mr SolderFix] likes to pull a strand from a large wire, file the point down, and coil it around the soldering iron. This gives you a very tiny hot tip. Sure, the wire won’t last forever, but who cares? When it gives up, you can simply make another one.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Dutch government seizes local chipmaker from its Chinese owner — Nexperia parent company Wingtech preps response to 'exceptional' steps taken to safeguard 'crucial technological knowledge'

    The Dutch government has taken control of the Chinese-owned Nexperia, an automotive and consumer chip production company, for national security reasons. It's claiming that to prevent key technologies from leaving European and Dutch soil, it needs to put hard blocks in place.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Pro Publica ☛ Fluoridation Debate Turns Raucous in a Michigan Community

    On the far east side of Michigan, the future of fluoride in drinking water — long an ordinary practice for preventing tooth decay — has suddenly provoked passionate debate.

    Public meetings in St. Clair County, about an hour northeast of Detroit, have filled with people weighing in. One man waved his Fixodent denture cream before the county commissioners, suggesting that his own experience showed what would happen if local communities stopped treatment.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Education Dept. Reverses Decision to Halt Funds for Deafblind Student Programs

    Following public outcry, the U.S. Department of Education has restored funding for students who have both hearing and vision loss, about a month after cutting it.

    But rather than sending the money directly to the four programs that are part of a national network helping students who are deaf and blind, a condition known as deafblindness, the department has instead rerouted the grants to a different organization that will provide funding for those vulnerable students.

  • New York Times ☛ W.H.O. Warns of Sharp Increase in Drug-Resistant Infections

    The U.N. health agency found that one in six infections worldwide was resistant to the most commonly available antibiotics.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Vulnerable Hongkongers urged to get seasonal influenza jab after death of 13-year-old girl

    The Department of Health has urged all vulnerable Hongkongers – including schoolchildren and the elderly – to get the Seasonal Influenza Vaccination (SIV) as soon as possible. It comes after a 13-year-old girl with a severe case of paediatric influenza B died on Sunday.

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ Fluoride wars spark raucous debate over water treatment in Michigan county

    After decades of fluoridating drinking water to improve public health, some communities are wavering on the practice. In St. Clair County, the medical director is mirroring Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s efforts against fluoridation.

  • Latvia ☛ Latvia's emergency medical service plans reforms

    The Emergency Medical Service (NMPD) is preparing major changes to its work to respond to calls faster. According to Latvian Television's programme ‘De Facto’ aired on 12 October, a pilot project has just been launched in Rīga to test a one-person team for responding to low-priority calls.

  • Latvia ☛ Leptospirosis detected more than usual in Latvia this year

    Until 13 October this year, 25 cases of leptospirosis have been registered in Latvia, which is 6 times more than in previous years, the Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) said.

  • Science Alert ☛ Researchers Finally Identified Where Gluten Reactions Begin

    Proof at last!

  • Science Alert ☛ 'Giant' Baby Born in The US Is No Record. Here's The Science of Big Births.

    It's not as rare as you'd think.

  • Science Alert ☛ New Chronic Fatigue Syndrome 'Blood Test' Raises Hope And Skepticism

    Is it too good to be true?

  • Science Alert ☛ Mass Coral Die-Offs Confirm First Breach of a Major Climate Tipping Point

    “A tragedy for nature and people.”

  • Science Alert ☛ Restless Legs Treatment Slashes Increased Risk of Parkinson's Disease

    A surprising link.

• Proprietary

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Futurism ☛ The More Scientists Work With AI, the Less They Trust It

      Numbers are down across the board.

      >

    • Futurism ☛ Parasitic Startup Pollutes Job Market by Applying to Jobs for You Automatically

      "What if everyone applied to every job?"

    • The Strategist ☛ Can artificial intelligence really think—and do we care?

      Even before artificial intelligence burst into public consciousness, there had been an ongoing debate about whether such systems—large language models (LLMs) in particular—could really think.

    • France24 ☛ California signs first US law regulating Hey Hi (AI) chatbots, defying White House stance

      California Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday signed the nation’s first law regulating artificial intelligence chatbots, defying White House calls for a hands-off approach. The measure requires chatbot operators to implement safeguards for user interactions and allows lawsuits if failures cause harm, state senator Steve Padilla, the bill’s sponsor, said.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Privacy International ☛ Tribunal Confirms Clearview Hey Hi (AI) Bound by GDPR

• Defence/Aggression

  • New York Times ☛ Fragments of 2003 Cable Detail Torture in a Secret C.I.A. Prison

    An interrogator covertly used a power drill and handgun to menace a prisoner, without permission from the agency’s headquarters.

  • France24 ☛ Malagasy President Rajoelina says he fled to a "secure location" to "protect his life"

    The current location of Madagascar’s president remains unclear. However, Andry Rajoelina has addressed the nation from an undisclosed location, stating that he is currently in hiding and was forced to flee for his own safety. There are unconfirmed reports that Rajoelina fled in a French military aircraft. Calls for his resignation have intensified after an elite military unit turned against the government at the weekend in support of weeks of youth-led protests. French President Emmanuel Macron said he could not immediately confirm reports that France had helped Rajoelina to flee. In his speech on Monday night, Rajoelina called for the constitution to be invoked to resolve the crisis surrounding his leadership. We speak to opposition MP Mamy Rabenirina to get his perspective on what the military’s support for the protests could mean for Madagascar’s political future.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China detains prominent ‘underground’ pastor in sweeping crackdown

    The founder of a prominent Chinese underground church has been detained along with more than 20 of its members in a sweeping national crackdown, according to his daughter and one of its pastors. Police arrested Jin Mingri, who founded the unregistered Zion Church, at his home in the southern region of Guangxi on Friday along […]

  • LRT ☛ Military exercise Storm Strike begins in western Lithuania

    Lithuania’s armed forces have launched their Storm Strike 2025 military exercise in the country’s west, with increased movement of troops and equipment expected across Klaipėda city and district, the army said on Monday.

  • JURIST ☛ UN reports millions in Haiti face acute hunger as armed groups tighten control

    The UN on Friday warned that millions of Haitians are facing severe food insecurity as armed groups continue to expand their territorial control around the country, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) hunger report.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Seoul plans first civilian nuclear bunker under public housing complex

    The country faces a heightened nuclear threat from neighbouring North Korea.

  • The Straits Times ☛ How an overseas job scam led to a South Korean student’s death in Cambodia

    The number of abductions of South Korean nationals in Cambodia is growing.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Meduza ☛ Back to Bukhara How memory, tourism, and the diaspora sustain the last vestiges of Uzbekistan’s Jewish heritage — Meduza

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • South Africans who blow the whistle face retaliation and murder: their stories over five decades

    South Africa’s long history of wrongdoing spans from Willem Adriaan van der Stel’s days of running a corrupt trading monopoly [...]

• Environment

  • New York Times ☛ Dozens Are Dead and Dozens More Missing as Catastrophic Rains Devastate Mexico

    Torrential rains set off deadly floods and landslides across five Mexican states, leaving a trail of destruction.

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ Flooding death toll reaches 64, Veracruz most affected with 29 dead, 18 missing

    Various rivers burst their banks and landslides occurred in Veracruz, Puebla, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí and Querétaro as a result of the torrential rain associated with Hurricane Priscilla and Tropical Storm Raymond last week.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia urban rail operator boosts reliability after crisis, eyes Singapore standard by 2026

      More funding and predictive maintenance have helped to improve urban rail reliability.

    • The Straits Times ☛ India unveils $93.7 billion hydro plan as China builds upstream dam

      The plan covers 208 large hydro projects across 12 sub-basins in the north-eastern states.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Ruben Schade ☛ The Blue Mountains and Wentworth Falls

      Last Saturday Clara’s dad joined the two of us for a day exploring the Blue Mountains. It’s only a couple of hours away due west from Sydney, but it feels like you’re stepping into another world.

      The first stop was to Echo Point, which is where most of the tourists go. From there you can see the Three Sisters rock formation, and the endless plateaus of the Blue Mountains National Park. I’ve been here a few times alone and with Clara on short weekend trips, but the view is still one of the most jaw-dropping I’ve ever seen. On a clear day like Saturday, it looks as though it goes on forever.

• Finance

  • IT Jungle ☛ As I See It: Retirement Challenges

    If you work long enough, eventually you’ll earn the right not to work. Well, maybe. Retirement has become an increasingly tricky proposition. The three-legged stool designed to support the financial weight of life beyond employment is collapsing. For millions of workers approaching retirement, the support once provided by pensions, personal savings, and social security is no longer reliable. Once thought to be constructed of sturdy oak, the stool now resembles something patched together with balsa wood and duct tape.

  • WhichUK ☛ How to beat rising food prices

    With food inflation taking off again, Ellie Simmonds sets out smarter ways to keep your grocery bill down

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • The Straits Times ☛ China’s Pooh-tin calls for greater inclusion of women in governance

    He said the move would ensure that gender equality is "truly internalised" within society.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China detains dozens of underground church pastors in crackdown

    About 20 pastors and church leaders remain in detention.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China is very concerned about Pakistan-Afghanistan clashes, foreign ministry says

    China has asked the two countries to protect its nationals and investments in the region.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Beijing appoints ex-China Daily senior editor as Liaison Office deputy chief

    Sun Shangwu, former deputy editor-in-chief at the state-run news outlet China Daily, has been appointed deputy director of Beijing’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong. The appointment, made by China’s State Council, was announced on Saturday on the website of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

  • Bruce Schneier ☛ Rewiring Democracy is Coming Soon

    My latest book, Rewiring Democracy: How Hey Hi (AI) Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship, will be published in just over a week.

  • The Straits Times ☛ YouTube warns Australia social control media ban will not keep children safe

    The video-streaming giant says the ban is “well-intentioned” but will risk “unintended consequences”.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia expels students accused in gang rape in Melaka school as case ignites outrage, debate

    The four have been allowed to sit national exams, amid debate over moral education, discipline and safety in schools.

  • New York Times ☛ China Hosts a Summit on Women’s Rights, While Stifling Activism

    The conference was billed as a celebration of China’s achievements in supporting women. But the government has mostly wiped out independent advocacy groups.

  • The Straits Times ☛ From cars to fighter jets, China’s new export curbs may deal a heavy blow worldwide

    The broad restrictions could cause supply interruptions for the arms, semiconductor, automotive and other sectors.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • APNIC ☛ Your elected leaders: Sumon Ahmed Sabir, APNIC EC member

    From an Internet-less Bangladesh to the APNIC Executive Council — Sumon’s journey of connecting with the Internet community.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Unified Patents ☛ Post-Grant Review Trials

    The panelists discuss how practitioners can effectively manage inter partes and post-grant reviews, emphasizing procedural nuances, litigation coordination, and recent trends impacting patent monopoly validity challenges. The discussion helps companies understand, at a high-level, how to protect valuable IP assets, anticipate challenges from competitors, and make informed decisions about pursuing or defending post-grant proceedings as part of a broader patent monopoly strategy. For businesses, patents are both key assets and sources of competitive value, making validity disputes potentially game-changing battles.