Leftovers

• Digital Camera World ☛ Rod Stewart sets up camera to keep an eye on his model railroad layout as it embarks on transatlantic journey

  Rod, who would famously take railroad modelling supplies and kits out on the road to keep him occupied when touring, was keen to transport the layout to the famous couple’s residence in Essex during lockdown. But it was Penny who came up with the ingenious idea to hire a crew that dismantles film sets.

• Express ☛ Rod Stewart set up spy camera to keep eye on workers moving model railway

  However, Penny thought of getting in touch with people who dismantle film sets who could help. She explained: "I think he had a camera set up so he could watch it all. They moved it into these containers and then on ships over to the UK.

• Matthew Weber ☛ Editing Your Blog Posts Is The Worst Part

  So, yes, I edit these posts. I hate it though. I’m overly judgmental (why would anyone want to read this nonsense), and I tend to grind my teeth through the entire experience. Some of it is laziness, some of it is wondering why I bother writing at all.

• Matt Birchler ☛ 15 years of Birchtree

  I'm actually not 100% sure what I was publishing to all the way back then, but I got the birchtree.me URL back in 2012.

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ An Expert Reveals How to Keep Your Brain Sharp as You Age

    It's entirely possible.

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Solved Chicago's 'Rat Hole' Mystery, And The Culprit Is Adorable

    The mistaken identity of Splatatouille.

  • Science Alert ☛ Planet Y: A Hidden Earth-Size World Could Lurk Far Closer Than 'Planet Nine'

    "Certainly the discovery of a puzzle."

  • Futurism ☛ Scientists Invent Room Temperature Ice

    Cut me a slice of that water?

  • Science Alert ☛ Mysterious Blob of Darkness Found Lurking Deep in Distant Galaxy

    What even is it?

  • Futurism ☛ NASA Guts Workforce at Lab Responsible for Mars Rovers

    That sound you hear? It’s the United States’ leadership role in space exploration disintegrating in real time.

  • The Register UK ☛ MIT boffins claim to double the precision of atomic clocks

    The problem is that atoms are, unsurprisingly, incredibly difficult to measure. As well as being very, very tiny, quantum mechanics builds in a sort of microscopic static that makes their ticking impossible to measure with complete certainty.

    The MIT team discovered a way to tune out that static using a technique they call global phase spectroscopy, which they described in a new study published in Nature.

  • The Atlantic ☛ Harvard’s Public-Health School Is on Life Support

    Some nine months into the Trump administration’s assault on academic science, Harvard’s public-health school has just about everything going against it that an American academic institution can. It is part of Harvard, which the administration has accused of failing to protect students from anti-Semitism. It has excelled in several fields that the administration has declared unworthy of federal funds: infectious disease, health equity, climate change, global health. About half of the school’s faculty contributes in some way to international research, which the administration has also taken a stand against. Many HSPH researchers are themselves from other countries—including roughly 40 percent of the school’s students—and their ability to stay here is uncertain under the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • CBC ☛ Lead levels in protein powder, shakes flagged by Consumer Reports

    There is no safe level of lead for human consumption, though it finds its way into many foods because lead is present in the environment.

    Consumer Reports found most plant-based protein products it tested had elevated lead levels compared with animal-based products.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ Trump: No Money for Health Care, Plenty for Argentina

    Argentina’s libertarian president, Javier Milei, is the lucky winner of $40 billion that Donald Trump managed to conjure from thin air. Less lucky are the Americans who rely on the government programs Trump has gutted to be able to “save” that sum.

  • Overpopulation ☛ How a survey in developing countries might reveal hidden fertility norms

    The total fertility rate (TFR) in Africa has declined since about 1980, but the mean value is still 4.1, and 4.3 for Sub-Saharan Africa, compared to 1.9 and 1.8 for Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, respectively (UN Population Division 2024). In SSA, TFR is influenced by many factors which vary by circumstances and region, according to Church and colleagues (2023). Historically, family planning (FP) programs have been successful in reducing TFR, especially in Asia and Latin America, but also in some African countries. Bongaarts (2020) concluded that the reduction of TFR in countries in SSA between 1989 and 2019 was associated with strength of FP program and degree of female education, with the FP program effect slightly larger than the education effect. Yet the mechanisms underlying such results are often unclear and hard to study. One probably important influence is cultural norms for childbearing.

  • Science Alert ☛ A Common Pain Relief Drug May Have Anti-Cancer Properties

    Here's what we know.

  • Latvia ☛ Good cranberry year in Latvia

    Cranberries are the most consumed berry in Latvia in a given year because they are long-keeping, claims the Latvian Fruit Growers Association (LAA). The cranberry harvest at Latgale Cranberries, located in Ludza municipality just a few kilometres from the Latvian-Russian border, has been impressive this year, with 50 tonnes of cranberries harvested, Latgale Television reports.

  • Science Alert ☛ Millions of Us Have Likely Lost Our Smell Without Even Realizing It

    Here's how.

  • Science Alert ☛ Alzheimer's And Cancer May Soon Be Treated With Sounds We Can't Hear

    Clinical trials are underway.

  • Science Alert ☛ Identical Twins Can Have Significant IQ Differences, Shock Study Reveals

    One key factor has been overlooked.

  • Science Alert ☛ Up to 13% of Dementia Diagnoses May Actually Be a Treatable Condition

    “You are never too old to get better.”

  • New York Times ☛ Instagram Unveils Teen Safety Features for Hey Hi (AI) Chatbots

    Instagram is introducing parental controls and limits to conversations on topics like self-harm as concerns grow over how Hey Hi (AI) chatbots affect mental health.

  • New York Times ☛ Higher Obamacare Prices Become Public in a Dozen States

    Consumers are facing greater costs for their 2026 A.C.A. health coverage as Congress continues to debate whether to extend subsidies that help people afford their premiums.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Johor to step up efforts to weed out vape traders

    The Health Ministry is pushing for a vape ban by setting the deadline for mid-2026.

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ Smoking, vapes spark fire danger in Michigan

    Smoking-related fires remain a leading cause of fire deaths in Michigan, with many linked to indoor smoking and medical oxygen use. Officials are urging residents to adopt smoke-free housing and handle e-cigarettes safely to prevent battery-related fires.

  • Engadget ☛ Blizzard teams working on Hearthstone and Warcraft Rumble unionize [Ed: Fear of layoffs at Microsoft]

    Blizzard developers working on Hearthstone and Warcraft Rumble have formed a new union, the latest in a series of labor wins at the Microsoft-owned studio. The over 100-person unit is represented by the Communication Workers of America (CWA), and counts "software engineers, designers, artists, quality assurance testers and producers" among its members.

• Proprietary

  • Macworld ☛ You should activate this security setting on your iPhone immediately

    No matter how you personally assess this risk, there is a simple remedy (besides never using public charging stations). In iOS 26 and iPadOS 26, Apple added a feature that’s been available on Macs for a while now: Wired Accessories. You’ve probably seen this in action on the Mac, where the default setting is to ask you whether you trust an external device when you plug it in.

    [...] in iOS 26 and iPadOS 26, the default for the Wired Accessories setting is to Automatically Allow When Unlocked. You can change this. Here’s how.

  • Mark Phillips ☛ Apple's engineering isn't what it used to be

    Whilst rummaging around in a large box of cables (you’ve got one of those too, haven’t you?) the other day I found the first Apple product I ever bought, in 2003. A second-generation iPod. An object of beautiful simplicity, of design elegance not seen since Rams’ Braun of the 1980s. From the moment you unboxed an iPod, the entire experience was like no other — who, up to now, had thought to make packaging part of the journey? Amazing.

  • Tyler Thorsted ☛ Textor – Obsolete Thor

    Many of us lived through the Word Processing Wars of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. It was an overwhelming time of many options to choose from, each providing new features with each update, trying to become the leader in the word processing game. Early DOS versions had steep learning curves which built loyalty to those who committed to muscle memory all the key commands needed to produce the perfect document. With the many options to choose for word processing, brought just as many file formats to save your work. Many titles used the same file extensions or encouraged users to choose their own, using their initials instead. Often the files created by these software titles, used standard ASCII text, but mixed in their own formatting codes which all tend to make identification in preservation difficult.

    I recently acquired a large lot of older software. It has been fun sorting through it and learning about the different titles. One title stuck out, as I hadn’t heard of it before. I found an old article which included the software in a comparison of word processing software in 1993. The article compares the following executive word processing software.

  • Ghacks ☛ Meta is shutting down its Messenger desktop apps on Windows and Mac

    Apple Insider spotted a couple of help pages on Facebook's website that indicated that the apps are being retired. It's unclear why the apps are being killed. As a reminder, Meta replaced its native Messenger app on Windows with a progressive web app in late 2024. A few months ago, the WhatsApp UWP app was also replaced with a web wrapper. Users were upset by both changes.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Futurism ☛ Police Issue Warning About "AI Homeless Man" Prank

      “Besides being in bad taste, there are many reasons why this prank is, to put it bluntly, stupid and potentially dangerous,” the Salem, Massachusetts police department wrote in a statement. “This prank dehumanizes the homeless, causes the distressed recipient to panic and wastes police resources.”

    • NBC ☛ 'AI homeless man prank' on social media prompts concern from local authorities

      Over 5 million people have liked Spencer’s video on TikTok, where the hashtag #homelessmanprank populated more than 1,200 videos, most of them related to the recent trend. Some have also used the hashtag #homelessman to post their videos, all of which center on the idea of tricking people into believing that there is a stranger inside their home. Several people have also posted tutorials about how to make the images. The trend has also spread to other social media platforms, including Snapchat and Instagram.

    • The Register UK ☛ God Mode: Vatican AI summit wants global AI rules

      Recently, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff warned investors to avoid the "false prophets" of AI. Now, the Pope has brought real theological weight to the bot debate, hosting a Vatican seminar that called for global AI regulation and fair distribution of the technology's benefits.

      The seminar [PDF] – dubbed Digital Rerum Novarum: Artificial Intelligence for Peace, Social Justice, and Integral Human Development – was organized by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences together with the University of Notre Dame.

    • International Business Times ☛ Alien Invasion 2025: Scientists Say Aliens Might Be Living Among Us—Disguised As AI

      This serves as one of the attempts by scientists over time to explain the Fermi Paradox. The theory itself has had many possible explanations. This includes the theory that humanity is actually locked up inside a celestial zoo, as well as aliens shapeshifting into unrecognisable forms.

      In the Drake Equation, there should be many extraterrestrial civilisations nearby and able to communicate with us. This equation also attempts to estimate how likely humans will contact alien life. All the while, this suggests that the chances are high.

    • Wired ☛ Can AI Avoid the Enshittification Trap?

      The experience bolstered my confidence in AI results but also made me wonder: As companies like OpenAI get more powerful, and as they try to pay back their investors, will AI be prone to the erosion of value that seems endemic to the tech apps we use today?

    • Lee Peterson ☛ An AI free smartphone

      It’s the main reason I’ve stopped even looking at switching to a Google Pixel, no escaping Gemini. Using an iPhone might be the best move with AI features opted out.

    • Don Marti ☛ adding a Content Signals Policy to this site

      On the other hand, this is not 100% up to Google. The EU AI Act requires AI firms to observe opt-outs, and that applies to any model offered in the EU, not just trained there. So Content Signals Policy has some teeth from day one.

    • BoingBoing ☛ Wikipedia losing traffic to AI

      Nonetheless, the AI summaries are a key part of the problem: "Almost all large language models (LLMs) train on Wikipedia datasets"

    • Futurism ☛ The Economics of Running an AI Company Are Disastrous

      But that’s all, despite AI company revenues barely making a dent on balance sheets. And as the Wall Street Journal reports, it’s not just smaller AI firms losing copious amounts of money. Even the biggest players are losing billions — “brutal” economics that highlight growing concerns of an enormous AI bubble that could burst at any moment.

    • US News And World Report ☛ Sex Is a Big Market for the AI Industry. ChatGPT Won't Be the First to Try to Profit From It

      OpenAI won't be the first to try to profit from sexualized AI. Sexual content was a top draw for AI tools almost as soon as the boom in AI-generated imagery and words erupted in 2022.

    • Omicron Limited ☛ AI 'workslop' is creating unnecessary extra work. Here's how we can stop it

      This can create a lot of extra work for others in identifying and correcting errors, not to mention reputational hits. Just this week, consulting firm Deloitte Australia formally apologized after a A$440,000 report prepared for the federal government had been found to contain multiple AI-generated errors.

      Against this backdrop, the term "workslop" has entered the conversation. Popularized in a recent Harvard Business Review article, it refers to AI-generated content that looks good but "lacks the substance to meaningfully advance a given task."

    • Pivot to AI ☛ AI boyfriend users radicalise against OpenAI — and self-host their chatbot companions

      Everything about this still seems like a bad idea. OpenAI has been scared of getting people too addicted to the chatbot — because they’re finally getting sued over the trail of dead bodies ChatGPT is leaving behind.

  • Social Control Media

    • Time ☛ Madagascar's President Flees As Gen Z Protesters Topple Another Government

      Protests began late last month in the country’s capital, Antananarivo, calling for the removal of Rajoelina, who gained power in a 2009 coup d'état. They were notably driven by Gen Z protesters.

    • Nature ☛ Populist narrative power in a globalised infosphere: a cross-language analysis | Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

      In this study, we examine the dynamics of populist actors in a globalized information sphere, where global events shape domestic political discourse. Our study uncovers three key research findings. First, populists played a major role in shaping the narrative around the protests in China. Despite the growing influence of populist movements in democratic societies, little theoretical and comparative work has explored their relationship with popular protests in authoritarian regimes. The intense interest shown by populists in the White Paper protests underscores the need for further analysis of this dynamic, and our dataset—freely available to download—offers ample potential for further research. Second, while previous research has focused on how populists employ misinformation to erode trust in democratic institutions, our study highlights their ability to reframe factual international news to align with their domestic agendas. Third, we examine the role of traditional media and journalists. While populists are often thought to reject mainstream media in favour of non-factual sources, our findings add nuance: journalists were utilised as a general information source by populist influencers, but had little control over the discourse on Twitter.

    • The Atlantic ☛ Vance’s Telling Defense of a Racist Group Chat

      This dynamic is now playing out on the right. Yet the rhetoric in the Republican chats is far more disturbing, in both its nature and its influence.

      That a group of ambitious professional Republicans can spread nakedly racist messages without rebuke signifies the transformation of conservative political norms in the Trump era. Party members now regularly engage in what the political commentator Richard Hanania has called the “based ritual,” a kind of game of rhetorical one-upsmanship. The only professional risk they perceive is being seen as insufficiently devoted to the MAGA cult. Displays of devotion involve espousing authoritarian, racist, and sexist concepts.

    • EFF ☛ UAW v. DOS - Complaint [PDF]

      5. Taken as a whole, the Challenged Surveillance Program is having its intended effect: suppressing the speech of thousands of U.S.-based visa holders, Lawful Permanent Residents, and others with immigration status, as well as their family members, friends, and colleagues in the U.S. seeking to protect them. Noncitizens throughout the U.S. are cancelling their social media accounts, erasing past social media and online posts and interactions, and forgoing future posting and other expression that may be documented online. Citizens are similarly refraining from speaking out online for fear of making targets of their family members, friends, and colleagues.

    • Scoop News Group ☛ State, DHS sued by union groups over AI-fueled surveillance programs

      The unions say this “vast surveillance apparatus” uses artificial intelligence and other automated technologies to conduct “viewpoint-based surveillance” of social media platforms. Paired with “explicit threats from high-ranking public officials to surveil and punish lawfully present noncitizens for speech documented online,” the lawsuit makes the case that the program has chilled protected speech of thousands of noncitizens lawfully present in the United States and their families, friends and colleagues.

    • EFF ☛ Labor Unions, EFF Sue Trump Administration to Stop Ideological Surveillance of Free Speech Online

      Since taking power, the Trump administration has created a mass surveillance program to monitor constitutionally protected speech by noncitizens lawfully present in the U.S. Using AI and other automated technologies, the program surveils the social media accounts of visa holders with the goal of identifying and punishing those who express viewpoints the government doesn't like. This has been paired with a public intimidation campaign, silencing not just noncitizens with immigration status, but also the families, coworkers, and friends with whom their lives are integrated.

    • The Register UK ☛ Labor unions sue US over social media surveillance

      Lawyers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are helping three US labor unions sue the Trump administration over a social media surveillance program that threatens to punish those who publicly express views that are not harmonious with the government's position.

      Citing First Amendment violations, the case is attempting to convince a federal court to end the program, which the EFF said has "silenced and frightened both citizens and noncitizens," and impacted the unions' ability to engage with members.

    • Seth Godin ☛ Fermi’s Law

      It’s not our job to be used by social media, or to become tools of the algorithm.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Biometric Update ☛ EU updates age verification blueprint app amid debate on social media restrictions | Biometric Update

      The goal of the age verification blueprint is to support the implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA) and its provisions to protect minors online. It enables users to prove they are over the age of 18 while accessing restricted content through a privacy-preserving age verification app. This means that the user doesn’t reveal any personal information, including their exact age, when accessing pornographic and other adult websites.

      T-Scy consortium, composed of Scytales AB (Sweden) and T-Systems International GmbH (Germany), is in charge of developing the blueprint and stakeholder support.

    • Reclaim The Net ☛ EU Launches New Push for Digital ID Age Checks

      Snap, Google, Apple, and YouTube have received formal requests from the Commission, which is seeking details on how these platforms prevent minors from accessing content it deems harmful or illegal.

    • European Commission ☛ Commission releases enhanced second version of the age-verification blueprint

      This new version allows for the use of passports and identity cards as onboarding methods, in addition to eIDs in order to generate a proof of age. Furthermore, it introduces support for a more user-friendly proof presentation method, the Digital Credentials API, which is increasingly becoming available in modern operating systems and browsers.

    • Futurism ☛ As Microsoft Forces Users to Ditch Windows 10, It Announces That It’s Also Turning Windows 11 into an AI-Controlled Monstrosity

      Needless to say, this requires ceding an alarming level of access to the AI — with your permission, of course. And evidence suggests this will be a hard sell. Microsoft’s AI-powered Recall feature, which constantly took screenshots of your desktop, received tons of backlash for its obvious security flaws, like recording your Social Security number, and storing these recordings in a completely unencrypted folder.

    • The Atlantic ☛ The End of the Old Instagram

      Instagram is now adopting the same label for a teen-safety feature, but the possible outcomes are less discrete and obvious. Meta announced earlier this week that all Instagram users under the age of 18 will be automatically placed in what it’s calling a PG-13 version of the app, where only content that might appear in a PG-13 movie will, ideally, be visible. “We hope this update reassures parents that we’re working to show teens safe, age-appropriate content on Instagram by default,” the company wrote in a news post.

    • Techdirt ☛ Flock Safety & Texas Sheriff Claimed License Plate Search Was For A Missing Person. It Was An Abortion Investigation.

      That sheriff has since been arrested and indicted on felony counts in an unrelated sexual harassment and whistleblower retaliation case. He has also been charged with aggravated perjury for allegedly lying to a grand jury. EFF filed public records requests with Johnson County to obtain a more definitive account of events.

      The newly released incident report and affidavit unequivocally describe the case as a “death investigation” of a “non-viable fetus.” These documents also undermine the claim that the ALPR search was in response to a medical emergency, since, in fact, the abortion had occurred more than two weeks before deputies were called to investigate.

    • The Record ☛ Tech industry association sues to block Texas ‘censorship’ law age-gating access to apps

      Under the law, users who cannot prove they are older than 18 years old must link their account to that of a parent or guardian. Parents and guardians will be required to prove that they are older than 18 to enable the purchase.

      The law applies to nearly all apps, including those providing access to newspapers, public libraries and the Bible. The CCIA argues that requiring age verification and linkage of child and parent accounts violates the First Amendment and invades the privacy of all app users.

    • The Verge ☛ Facebook’s new button lets its AI look at photos you haven’t uploaded yet

      If Facebook wanting to look at your unpublished photos sounds familiar, it might be because we wrote about an early test in June. At that time, the company claimed unposted, private photos were not being used to train Meta’s AI, but it declined to rule out whether it would do so in the future.

      Well, the future is now, and it sure sounds like Meta wants to train its AI on your photos — under certain conditions. In the Friday announcement of the feature, Meta says, “We don’t use media from your camera roll to improve AI at Meta, unless you choose to edit this media with our AI tools, or share.”

    • Privacy International ☛ PI analysis of draft ILO Convention and Recommendation on the platform economy

      On 3 July 2025, the General Conference of the International Labour Organization (ILO) adopted a resolution committing the ILO to adopt a Convention supplemented by a Recommendation concerning decent work in the platform economy following a second discussion on this issue in 2026.

      PI welcomes the ILO's decision as a step in the right direction to protect platform workers who have been at the forefront of new forms of data exploitation in the workplace as we have been documenting for many years. The platform economy has created an environment of unprecedented surveillance and monitoring for workers that greatly threatens privacy and other fundamental rights.

    • Stanford University ☛ Be Careful What You Tell Your AI Chatbot

      Given this trend, should users of AI-powered chat systems worry about their privacy? “Absolutely yes,” says the study’s lead author, Jennifer King, Privacy and Data Policy Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI. “If you share sensitive information in a dialogue with ChatGPT, Gemini, or other frontier models, it may be collected and used for training, even if it’s in a separate file that you uploaded during the conversation.”

    • The Record ☛ Ring to partner with Flock, giving law enforcement easier access to home security camera footage

      Under the new partnership, law enforcement agencies which use Flock Safety products can ask Ring owners to provide images for “evidence collection and investigative work,” according to a blog post on the Ring website.

      Police officials using the Flock platform will be able to ask Ring owners for footage by listing the specific timeframe and location of the incident they are investigating and why they are investigating it.

    • Wired ☛ ByteDance’s Other AI Chatbot Is Quietly Gaining Traction Around the World

      ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has built what is currently the most popular AI chatbot in China: Doubao. Launched in 2023, the app has risen to the top of the country’s generative AI market, reaching more than 157 million monthly active users by August, according to Chinese analytics firm QuestMobile.

      But what’s less known is that Doubao also has an overseas counterpart: Cici. It was released around the same time and features a nearly identical female cartoon avatar as its app icon, except Cici’s has longer hair than Doubao’s. The app is region-locked and not available in either China or the United States, which explains why it’s even more obscure than Doubao.

    • The Washington Post ☛ ICE amps up its surveillance powers, targeting immigrants and antifa

  • Confidentiality

    • Bruce Schneier ☛ A Surprising Amount of Satellite Traffic Is Unencrypted - Schneier on Security

    • Gizmodo ☛ You Only Need $750 of Equipment to Pilfer Data From Satellites, Researchers Say

      Researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the University of Maryland scanned 39 of these satellites from a rooftop in Southern California over three years. They found that roughly half of the signals they analyzed were transmitting unencrypted data, potentially exposing everything from phone calls and military logistics to a retail chain’s inventory.

    • University of California, San Diego ☛ Don’t Look Up: There Are Sensitive Internal Links in the Clear on GEO Satellites [PDF]

      Geosynchronous (GEO) satellite links provide IP backhaul to remote critical infrastructure for utilities, telecom, government, military, and commercial users. To date, academic studies of GEO infrastructure have focused on a handful of satellites and specific use cases. We perform the first broad scan of IP traffic on 39 GEO satellites across 25 distinct longitudes with 411 transponders using consumer-grade equipment. We overcome the poor signal quality plaguing prior work and build the first general parser that can handle the diverse protocols in use by heterogeneous endpoints. We found 50% of GEO links contained cleartext IP traffic; while link-layer encryption has been standard practice in satellite TV for decades, IP links typically lacked encryption at both the link and network layers. This gives us a unique view into the internal network security practices of these organizations. We observed unencrypted cellular backhaul traffic from several providers including cleartext call and text contents, job scheduling and industrial control systems for utility infrastructure, military asset tracking, inventorymanagement for global retail stores, and in-flight wifi.

    • Cyble Inc ☛ Unencrypted Satellite IP Traffic Is A Widespread Problem

      Satellite links contain a surprising amount of unencrypted traffic – and perhaps even more surprising is the fact that the researchers who discovered that unencrypted traffic did it using about $650 of consumer-grade equipment.

      In a paper published this week, researchers from the University of California San Diego and the University of Maryland College Park detailed their efforts to scan the geosynchronous (GEO) satellite links that provide IP backhaul to remote critical infrastructure, telecom, government, military, and commercial users.

• Defence/Aggression

  • FAIR ☛ Chip Gibbons on Trump’s Blueprint to Crush the Left, Cara Brumfield on Erasing Federal Data

  • El País ☛ Swedish [sic] mafias settle their scores with gunfire on the Costa del Sol

    Wars between drug gangs [sic] in the Nordic country are the origin of numerous shootings, bombings, and murders that have occurred around Marbella in recent years

  • Digital Music News ☛ Trump's TikTok USA Deal Still Isn't Over The Finish Line

    That statement is something advertisers are wary of since the current TikTok algorithm is what drives virality. TikTok has been pressuring advertisers to spend 25% more on the platform, despite the murky understanding of how the algorithm will be impacted once the TikTok USA transition occurs. Advertisers have been reticent to increase their advertising spend on the platform while the platform’s future performance is likely to change.

    While Trump’s initial plan was to license the algorithm from ByteDance, that may still run afoul of the law signed by former President Joe Biden. Trump has delayed the enforcement of that law more than three times since it was supposed to be enacted on January 20.

  • Techdirt ☛ Why Things Are The Way They Are

    We’ve already seen the First Amendment converted into a vehicle for punishment. For Trump and his supporters, the First Amendment only protects their speech. They’ll be the first to point out there’s no “hate speech” exception to the First Amendment while simultaneously asserting that anyone who takes the side of Palestine via protests or public statements is providing “material support for terrorism.”

    The rest of our rights are considered equally discretionary by this administration. While it will never do anything to alter the contours of an amendment that’s always been considered expansive enough to cover even the broadest definitions made by people operating with the least amount of good faith (that would be the Second Amendment), it seems like it’s more than willing to destroy the rest of them, especially those that put anyone that’s not white or male on (more or less) equal footing with the white males they (mostly) are.

  • Dark Reading ☛ China Hackers Test AI-Optimized Attack Chains in Taiwan

    "You're seeing some state-aligned actors use AI in different ways," Alexis Dorais-Joncas, senior manager of threat research for Proofpoint, told a room of reporters at the company's Predict 2025 conference in Nashville. In the case of DropPitch, he said, "the results were questionable at best. Terrible-looking phishing emails. So you know, AI used by incompetent people will lead to incompetent results."

  • Ben Werdmuller ☛ Europe Can’t Defend Democracy on US Servers

    While Geese focuses on Europe’s economic and cultural independence, I’d extend the argument: the threat isn’t just monopolies, it’s authoritarianism. X, LinkedIn, Meta’s properties, and the US TikTok consortium have all made financial and strategic deals with the current administration. That doesn’t just create risk for vulnerable groups; it carries risk for any country that might be competitive with the United States, or anyone inside the country who might be considered at odds with current policy.

  • Tech Policy Press ☛ Europe Can’t Defend Democracy on US Servers | TechPolicy.Press

    Europe needs independent European infrastructure now—especially home-grown social networks that preserve a level playing field for information, safeguard media freedom and guarantee genuine freedom of speech, including the right to access facts instead of being fed lies and propaganda. The recent TikTok deal in the United States, where Trump toys with turning the platform into a MAGA propaganda engine alongside friendly investors, should send chills through Europe. We know the Orban playbook too well. US platforms amplify Russian disinformation and drown political debate in noise. Romania repeated a presidential election after its secret service uncovered thousands of influencers paid to boost an obscure candidate. Even in the run-up to the repetition of the canceled election, Global Witness found TikTok’s algorithm delivered almost three times more far-right content to newly registered, politically balanced users than any other political material.

    European platforms that reject toxic algorithms and surveillance-grade data profiling constitute the foundation of digital-era democracy.

  • The Zambian Observer ☛ Sweden to begin stockpiling food as it prepares for war with Russia

    Civil Defence Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin admitted: ‘We are well aware that the risk of Sweden becoming completely cut off is very low, but the risk of complex supply chains being disrupted with major and unpredictable consequences in the event of war and conflict is unfortunately more likely’.

    He said the first stockpiles will be established in northern Sweden in the counties of Norrbotten, Vasterbotten, Vasternorrland, and Jämtland.

  • Deccan Chronicle ☛ No More TikTok or Instagram for Under-16s in Australia from December, Platforms Face Massive Fines

    Starting Dec. 10, platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X and YouTube could be fined up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) if they don’t take reasonable steps to prevent Australians younger than 16 from holding accounts.

  • Digital Music News ☛ 'TikTok USA' Still Isn't In The Bag, But Advertisers Are Pushed Hard

    TikTok is considered a unique gateway to advertise to Gen Z audiences, which spend between 110-115 minutes per day browsing the app. Advertising on TikTok has held mostly steady throughout the negotiation process, even with the January hiccup when TikTok went offline briefly due to the TikTok divestment law signed by Joe Biden. Meanwhile, advertisers are afraid to commit to TikTok USA because they’re afraid the ad effectiveness may decline under new leadership.

  • BBC ☛ US Supreme Court weighs 'earthquake' ruling on Voting Rights Act

    The court heard a challenge to a central pillar of the Voting Rights Act, which was originally designed to protect the electoral power of black Americans in the face of state-sanctioned discrimination.

  • Politico LLC ☛ The Supreme Court is hearing a case that could weaken the Voting Rights Act — and upend the midterms

    The Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear arguments in a case that could gut the Voting Rights Act by barring states from considering the racial makeup of voting populations when drawing district lines — an outcome that stands to change the course of next year’s midterm elections.

    In adopting that approach, the justices could upend decades of court decisions holding that states may — and sometimes must — use race-conscious redistricting to protect the voting power of minorities.

  • Vox ☛ The uncomfortable problem with America’s greatest civil rights law, the Voting Rights Act

    The central problem that the VRA targeted was illiberal states, ruled by white supremacists determined to cut Black Americans out of political power. In the mid-1960s, the federal government were the good guys on racial equality, led by its greatest champion to occupy the White House since President Ulysses S. Grant. In addition to the Voting Rights Act, Johnson signed laws banning race discrimination in employment, schools, hotels, restaurants, theaters, and housing.

  • The Washington Spectator ☛ Criminalizing the Opposition

    When those in power bend the machinery of justice to their will, they rarely stop with their personal enemies. In 2025, Donald Trump began repurposing the powers of the federal government to hobble the infrastructure that enables Americans to vote—and especially to vote for Democrats.

  • Robert Reich ☛ The Trump Regime is Wildly Violating the Hatch Act

    The Hatch Act was passed in 1939. Its purpose was to ensure federal programs were administered in a nonpartisan way and to protect federal employees from any political coercion on the job.

    The Hatch Act is still the law. As is the Anti-Lobbying Act of 1919, which prohibits the use of appropriated funds for activities designed to “support or defeat legislation pending before Congress.”

    So what’s with all the government employees in the Trump administration putting out partisan propaganda during the shutdown?

  • The Zambian Observer ☛ Muslim prayer room has been set up in the heart of the Vatican City’s 500-year-old library - The Zambian Observer

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • LRT ☛ Lithuania temporarily restores top-level security for Belarus opposition leader

      Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has temporarily regained state security protection in Lithuania, her diplomatic adviser said Friday, following a decision to restore limited support from the country’s Dignitary Protection Service while a new protection system is established.

    • Meduza ☛ ‘Russia’s most effective spokesperson in the U.S.’: Alexander Dugin has peddled his mystical, anti-liberal philosophy for decades. Why is his profile growing now? — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Budapest Memo redux, a military base shooting, and Nord Stream shmord shtream Meduza breaks down today’s biggest Russia-related news stories, October 17, 2025 — Meduza

    • New York Times ☛ Russia Jails Street Band for Performing Antiwar Songs

      The group, called Stoptime, had been performing anti-Kremlin songs for months and gaining in popularity before the authorities moved against the open dissent.

    • The Straits Times ☛ India says it’s unaware of Convicted Felon-Modi conversation on Russian oil

      It comes hours after Mr Convicted Felon indicated he spoke with Mr Modi, who pledged to halt Russian oil purchases.

    • The Straits Times ☛ India tries to balance US, Russia ties in pursuit of Convicted Felon deal

      The latest developments show Modi's tricky balancing act between the biggest export market and a longstanding strategic partner.

    • France24 ☛ Polish teens learn to fly drones as Russian threat grows

      As the threat of Russian incursion in Europe grows, Polish teens in a military school are following the country’s first drone class, overseen by the ministry of defence. The goal is to learn how to use them, and how they can be used in a military strategy.

    • New York Times ☛ Zelensky to Meet With Convicted Felon to Discuss Weapons and Peace Prospects for Ukraine

      Hell Toupée said he wanted Ukraine and Russia to stop fighting and was hesitant about providing President Volodymyr Zelensky with long-range missiles.

    • New York Times ☛ Meet the Designer Who Got Zelensky Into a Suit

      Viktor Anisimov, one of Ukraine’s top fashion designers, first met Volodymyr Zelensky about 20 years ago, when the future president was a comedian. He didn’t want to wear a suit then either.

    • New York Times ☛ Zelensky Pressed Convicted Felon for New Weapons

      Also, the Treasury secretary is betting big on Argentina. Here’s the latest at the end of Friday.

    • France24 ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man - Zelensky: Ukrainian president to seek Tomhawk missiles in White House talks

      President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to discuss the possible supply of US Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine during his meeting with President The Insurrectionist in the White House on Friday.

    • France24 ☛ Governing Gaza, Ukraine, Hey Hi (AI) 'Slop,' and the Dead Internet Theory

      It’s been a week of global upheaval and fragile progress — from a historic prisoner release and tentative ceasefire in Gaza, to the dramatic fall of Madagascar’s president amid a military rebellion. In the U.S., political tensions deepen as yet another Convicted Felon critic faces federal charges, raising fresh questions about the weaponisation of justice. And in the UK, espionage concerns escalate as MI5 names China a “daily threat” after a collapsed spy trial sparks controversy at the highest levels.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Holocaust photo: 1941 Nazi murderer now identified

    The error was discovered through a stroke of serendipity. A few years ago, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. received the war diaries of Austrian Wehrmacht soldier Walter Materna, who was stationed in Berdychiv in 1941.

  • Sightline Media Group ☛ He was awarded a Silver Star for a battle the US said never happened

    For decades, the battle of Lima Site 85 — a top-secret American tactical air navigation radar site atop at 5,800-foot-high mountaintop 15 miles from the North Vietnamese border — would remain secret, unreported.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Ofcom orders BBC to air statement about Gaza documentary on TV

    The BBC’s use of the son of a Hamas official as a narrator for a Gaza documentary amounted to a “serious breach” of the Broadcasting Code, Ofcom has ruled.

    As a sanction for the breach, Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a statement of its findings about the breach on BBC2 at 9pm on a date of the regulator’s choosing.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Los Angeles Times reveals $50m loss as it seeks $500m investment

    The figures were published after Los Angeles Times Media Group revealed plans to sell shares priced at $5,000 to investors to raise up to $500m.

    The Los Angeles Times does not usually disclose its financial information as a private company. Potential investors were told their investment information will be kept confidential.

  • International Business Times ☛ Prince Andrew Shock: Virginia Giuffre Claims Royal Had 'Orgy' With Jeffrey Epstein and 'Eight Other Underage Girls'

    The book, titled Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, was completed before Giuffre's tragic death in April 2025 and is scheduled for release on 21 October. Its contents promise to escalate the scandal that has plagued the monarchy in a deeply personal and disturbing way, ensuring the Duke of York remains at the centre of this grim narrative.

• Environment

  • The Nation ☛ AI Is Going to Kill Everyone You Love. The Surprise Is How.

    This vision benefits fossil-fuel companies because in the world of data centers, speed and reliability are key. Solar and wind would require massive battery capacity to supply enough nonstop energy—which can be expensive—and a lot of land area. Gas plants are relatively quick to build, and enjoy subsidies from the Trump administration. As a result, gas, not renewables, has become the go-to power source for AI slop-bots and Grok’s white supremacy posts. And that means the electricity used by data centers is dirty—about 48 percent more carbon-intensive than the US average. Even if promises of future efficiency come through, it’ll be too late: Once these plants are built, there’s no going back. The three gas plants that’ll power Meta’s AI data center in Louisiana are built to operate for 30 years. By the time the plants are retired, most of Miami-Dade County will already be submerged by rising seas.

    Each new piece of infrastructure locks us in for decades of emissions, at a time when—the science is overwhelmingly clear—we cannot go on building fossil-fuel infrastructure and have a livable planet. The threat, in Louisiana, is not abstract. It is immediate.

  • Vox ☛ Peatlands are a crucial carbon sink. Destroying them could doom our planet’s climate

    “It’s the world’s temperature regulator,” said Valérie Courtois, executive director of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative, which works on Indigenous-led conservation efforts in Canada. “It’s like we have a big fridge on top of the planet that is helping keep everything the way that it should be.”

    But now, the fridge is hanging open.

    Though they cover only 3 percent of the earth’s surface, peatlands store nearly one-third of the world’s carbon. And these ecosystems around the world are vulnerable to development and destruction. Today, only 17 percent of the world’s peatlands fall within a protected area, according to a recent study by the Wildlife Conservation Society.

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Nearly 900 mn poor people exposed to climate shocks, UN warns

    According to an annual study published by the UNDP together with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, 1.1 billion people, or about 18% of the 6.3 billion in 109 countries analyzed, live in "acute multidimensional" poverty, based on factors like infant mortality and access to housing, sanitation, electricity and education.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Matt Birchler ☛ Cheaper MacBooks spark outrage

      For clarity, the law in question that goes into effect in April makes it required that certain classes of tech products, including laptops, to be sold to users with the option to not get a charging brick included. The law does not block companies from including a charging brick, it just makes sure that customers who don't need one aren't required to get one. The goal of this law is to reduce the amount of e-waste being created from chargers that users don't need.

    • Nick Heer ☛ The New MacBook Pro Is €35 Less Expensive in E.U. Countries, Ships Without a Charger – Pixel Envy

      First of all, the dollar is not the currency in any of these countries. Second, the charger in European countries is €65, which is more like $76 right now. Third, Apple is allowed to bundle an A.C. adapter, it just needs to offer an option to not include it. Fourth, and most important, is that the new MacBook Pro is less expensive in nearly every region in which the A.C. adapter is now a configure-to-order option — even after adding the adapter.

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ Amazon reveals 960 megawatt nuclear power plans to cope with AI demand — Richland, Washington site tapped for deployment of Xe-100 small modular reactors

      The Cascade Advanced Energy Facility would use next-gen Xe-100 reactors to deliver 960 megawatts of carbon-free power — but it’s years from becoming reality.

    • Interesting Engineering ☛ EV batteries could keep 96% power after 1,300 cycles with silver tech

      “This study demonstrates that the interface of a lithium electrode can be precisely controlled using only silver ions without going through a complex synthesis process,” Cho explained.

    • MIT Technology Review ☛ This startup thinks slime mold can help us design better cities

      Humans have been building cities for 6,000 years, but slime mold has been around for 600 million. The team behind a new startup called Mireta wants to translate the organism’s biological superpowers into algorithms that might help improve transit times, alleviate congestion, and minimize climate-related disruptions in cities worldwide.

      Mireta’s algorithm mimics how slime mold efficiently distributes resources through branching networks. The startup’s founders think this approach could help connect subway stations, design bike lanes, or optimize factory assembly lines. They claim its software can factor in flood zones, traffic patterns, budget constraints, and more.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Los Angeles Times ☛ Monterey Bay Aquarium banks on Taylor Swift sea otter shirts

      “Intentional or not, by putting our sea otter conservation work in the spotlight, this has brought a new era of support and awareness to the Aquarium’s long history of ocean conservation,” the Monterey Bay Aquarium said on its website, which also features some fun Swift and sea otter crossover facts.

    • Science Alert ☛ Near-Complete Fossil in Argentina Is One of The World's Oldest Dinosaurs

      It could inform studies into evolution.

    • New York Times ☛ Save the Whales. But Save the Microbes, Too.

      Conservation biologists propose a daunting task: protecting Earth’s diversity of bacteria and other microbes.

    • The Revelator ☛ Capitalism Loves Competition. Nature Has Other Ideas.

  • Overpopulation

    • ANF News ☛ 2nd Mesopotamia Water Forum begins in Amed: “Water is not a weapon”

      Speaking at the opening, Fatih Şahin stated that the forum would focus on the ecological destruction in the Tigris, Euphrates, and Lake Van.

      Co-Mayor of Amed Metropolitan Municipality, Doğan Hatun, stressed that water was still being used as a weapon. Hatun said, “The starting point of humanity is Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia has been the stronghold of labor. Today, water is once again playing this role.”

• Finance

  • LRT ☛ Lithuania’s inflation above EU average in September – Eurostat

    Lithuania’s annual harmonized inflation rate reached 3.7% in September, exceeding the European Union average, the EU statistics agency Eurostat reported Friday.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Antipope ☛ The pivot

    It's pretty clear now that a lot of the unrest we're seeing—and the insecurity-induced radicalization—is due to an unprecedented civilizational energy transition that looks to be more or less irreversible at this point.

  • Nick Heer ☛ The New ‘Foreign Influence’ Scare

    In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the assumption was that it would be democratic nations successfully using the web for global influence. But I think the 2016 U.S. presidential election, during which Russian operatives worked to sway voters’ intentions, was a reality check. Fears of foreign influence were then used by U.S. lawmakers to justify banning TikTok, and to strongarm TikTok into allowing Oracle to oversee its U.S. operations. Now, it is Saudi Arabian investment in Electronic Arts raising concerns. Like TikTok, it is not the next election that is, per se, at risk, but the general thoughts and opinions of people in the United States.

  • Current Affairs ☛ Democrats’ New Abundance Platform Isn’t Playing Out Well in San Francisco

    With a new majority on the Board of Supervisors, along with control over the Mayor’s and District Attorney’s Offices, the school board, and the local Democratic County Central Committee, political power in San Francisco has been consolidated in the hands of so-called “moderates” funded by and friendly to the interests of the tech and real estate industries. Put in the language of our political moment, San Francisco’s halls of power are awash with Abundance. Not coincidentally, San Franciscans are suffering more than ever in just about every measurable way, and City Hall is simply ignoring their plight.

  • Daniel Lemire ☛ Research results are cultural artifacts, not public goods

    Scientific progress as cultural evolution. Adopting discoveries requires cultural updates—and it is far from easy. Einstein’s papers are public, yet reading them won’t make you Einstein. He wasn’t a public good; he thrived in a specific culture. It’s unclear if he’d fit in today’s universities.

  • Ruby ☛ The Transition of RubyGems Repository Ownership

    Dear Ruby community,

    RubyGems and Bundler are essential official clients for rubygems.org and the Ruby ecosystem, bundled with the Ruby language for many years and functioning as part of the standard library.

    Despite this crucial role, RubyGems and Bundler have historically been developed outside the Ruby organization on Microsoft's proprietary prison GitHub , unlike other major components of the Ruby ecosystem.

    To provide the community with long-term stability and continuity, the Ruby core team, led by Matz, has decided to assume stewardship of these projects from Ruby Central. We will continue their development in close collaboration with Ruby Central and the broader community.

    We want to emphasize the following important points: [...]

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Rolling Stone ☛ ICE Arrests Protest Comedian Robby Roadsteamer, Laughs at Jokes

    Potylo left the ICE facility with nothing more than a citation for failure to obey an officer of the law, which will require him to return to Portland at some future date. He says he plans to sue “the living, holy hell out of that whole establishment,” but has also, in the course of his travels around the country, found that what’s happening in Portland may be the key to successful protest against Trump’s authoritarian power grabs.

  • El País ☛ ‘No Kings’ protests against Trump on October 18: What you need to know

    Millions of protesters will gather across the United States on Saturday, October 18, for the next round of No Kings protests against the Trump administration and what protesters describe as its authoritarian governing style. Currently, some 2,500 events are confirmed in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and several cities around the world, making it one of the largest coordinated protest movements in U.S. history.

  • Alabama Reflector ☛ No Kings day expected to draw millions for anti-Trump mass protests | Alabama Reflector

    “We’re going to vigorously exercise our democratic rights peacefully and nonviolently, and against this tyrannical threat of Donald Trump and his administration, we are going to protect American democracy,” said Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen.

  • Utah News Dispatch ☛ ‘Safety first’: Salt Lake City’s No Kings protest changes its plan • Utah News Dispatch

    Organizers of Salt Lake City’s No Kings protest are canceling the march portion of Saturday’s event for safety reasons and plan to hold a longer demonstration at the state Capitol instead.

  • Maine Morning Star ☛ Tending gardens, hitting the streets. Mainers plan protests across the state Saturday.

    At least 30 No Kings protests are scheduled across Maine as part of more than 2,500 that will take place nationally. Actions, small and large, are planned in communities including Machias, Dexter and Oxford Hills.

  • North Dakota Monitor ☛ 10 No Kings rallies planned for North Dakota on Saturday • North Dakota Monitor

    Ten No Kings protests are planned in cities across North Dakota with more than 2,000 events scheduled nationwide. The national movement emphasizes that America does not believe in kings or dictators, but the power belongs to the people.

  • Arkansas Advocate ☛ Arkansas protests to proceed as potential storms loom | Arkansas Advocate

    Storms are expected to start around midday Saturday, when many of the protests are scheduled, and will track across the state in the afternoon.

    In Little Rock, the protest coincides with the 13th annual Central Arkansas PRIDEFest and Parade. Following a rally at 10 a.m., protesters will join the festival’s parade at 11 a.m. in a “solidarity march.”

  • Kentucky Lantern ☛ Doctor. Teacher. Mamaw. Meet some 'No Kings' protesters organizing in 'deep-red' Kentucky

    Dozens of groups are partnering with protest organizers nationwide. A Wednesday release from nokings.org says 2,500 protests are planned across the country. Almost 30 are scheduled in Kentucky, a Republican stronghold that President Donald Trump always has carried overwhelmingly.

    Organizers acknowledged that inflamed rhetoric aimed at the protesters increases concerns about safety. Some said they’re taking steps in response, including posting more safety marshals, while also discounting the risks in their own towns.

  • Nevada Current ☛ Demonstrators will once again take to the streets ... well, sidewalks ... at LV's 'No Kings' rally

    With the “No Kings” rally returning this weekend bringing thousands out to protest President Donald Trump’s administration, Beth Osborne, an organizer with the grassroots movement Indivisible, expects bigger crowds in Las Vegas, as well as other cities across the country, than in the two demonstrations earlier this year.

    But one thing about the protest in Downtown Las Vegas will be the same: Demonstrators will again be kept off the streets themselves and confined to sidewalks, in part because of the high cost of permits.

  • Allbritton Journalism Institute ☛ ‘No Kings’ Protest Organizers Prepare for a Possible Trump Crackdown

    Republican leaders have linked — without evidence — the rallies, which are expected across 2,500 towns and cities, to terrorism and political violence. But some of the protests’ organizers and their supporters say they’re more concerned about what the federal response to these gatherings might look like than they are about any demonstrators’ potential illegal conduct.

  • Truthdig ☛ Dear Normies: Time to Stand Up - Truthdig

    These are, in other words, the people we need to frighten this weekend.

    The latest No Kings rally will be held across the country this Saturday afternoon, Oct. 18. If the last was any indication, it doesn’t matter how remotely you live in East Jesus County, or if your town’s ratio of council members-to-citizens approaches one. There’s probably a gathering reasonably nearby. And if the bleating from The Man Who Would Be King and his courtiers is any indication, the thought terrifies them.

  • The Nation ☛ No Violence at No Kings Day

    Why? Well, friends, first, because the hard-working organizers have asked you to play it their way: Indivisible, for example, states that their commitment to nonviolence is “not just a moral stance, it’s a strategic one,” and fundamental to their organizing. So, what part of “non” don’t you understand?

  • Omicron Limited ☛ As social media age restrictions spread, is the [Internet] entering its Victorian era?

    At first glance, these policies appear to be about protecting young people from mental health harm, explicit content and addictive design. But beneath the language of safety lies something else: a shift in cultural values.

    The bans reflect a kind of moral turn, one that risks reviving conservative notions that predate the [Internet]. Might we be entering a new Victorian era of the [Internet], where the digital lives of young people are reshaped not just by regulation but by a reassertion of moral control?

  • The Telegraph UK ☛ Only one side of the trans ‘debate’ blocks free speech and uses violence

    When I saw, at the end of last week, that the windows of the Brighton Centre were smashed in and daubed with paint for hosting Europe’s largest feminist conference, FiLiA, I was taken back to 2019, when I first witnessed mob violence against women arguing to maintain our rights.

    Up until then, I had experienced individual death and rape threats, heard about some sort of picket taking place in an office I never went to (it involved a couple of blokes and a pamphlet, apparently), and had to be ushered into events via a side door instead of the main one.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Press Gazette ☛ 2025 journalism job cuts tracked: 150 journalists laid off at NBC News

  • ACLU ☛ Live Coverage: No Kings National Day of Action

  • BIA Net ☛ Punitive travel restrictions hinder journalists in Turkey, union warns

    Of the 109 journalists who were detained over the past year, 82 were either formally arrested or subjected to judicial control measures, including international travel bans and regular check-ins with authorities, the Journalists Union of Turkey has found.

  • Vox ☛ Astead W. Herndon Joins Vox as Host and Editorial Director

    Herndon comes to Vox from the New York Times, where he distinguished himself as a sharp, accessible voice on American politics, hosting The Run-Up podcast and reporting stories in text, audio, and video formats. His reporting is known for translating complex political dynamics into clear, nuanced stories that resonated with both political insiders and those outside the political bubble. In August, the National Association of Black Journalists named Herndon their 2025 Journalist of the Year. Earlier this year, he won the Distinguished Journalist Award from DePaul University, and was honored with a ceremony in his birthplace of Chicago.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Adrian Roselli ☛ Talkin’ Tables at A11yTO Conf

    Ideally you’re here because you followed the link in the slides. Otherwise this post might not make a lot of sense.

  • USMC ☛ Family visit to Camp Pendleton ended with ICE deporting Marine’s dad

    The couple, who came to the United States from Mexico three decades ago and had pending green card applications, were stopped by immigration agents and later released with ankle monitors, Steve Rios said. At a later check-in with federal immigration officials, they were detained and taken into custody, he said.

    Esteban Rios, who had been wearing a hat and shirt that read “Proud Dad of a U.S. Marine,” was deported on Friday, his son said.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • ARRL ☛ FCC Announces Intent to Delete Minor Part 97 Provisions

    As part of a much larger overhaul focused on deleting almost 400 obsolete wireless regulations, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced plans to delete or modify four minor provisions of Part 97.

    ARRL’s Washington Counsel has reviewed the proposal and agrees that the deletions are to obsolete rules and will have no impact on today’s modern Amateur Radio Service. One of the deletions was suggested by ARRL as part of an earlier FCC request for public input on rules ripe for deletion.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Apple M5 chip makes its debut in new MacBook Pro, iPad Pro models

    The M5 chip, fabricated using an advanced 3-nanometre process, is expected to improve performance and energy efficiency across devices. The MacBook Pro with the latest chip can run large language models on the device, the company said.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Apple M5 chip smashes Snapdragon X2 Elite in early single-thread benchmarks — single core scores rival Intel's Core Ultra 9 285K and beat AMD's 9950X3D, teasing multi-core potential of future variants

    Compared to PC chips, the M5 is only behind a few single-core listings on Geekbench, if we count the best results, which makes sense considering how there's literally only one M5 MacBook Pro score right now, so it's quite cherry-picked. This also serves as your disclaimer for taking all these numbers with a grain of salt, since the sample size is simply too low at the moment to jump to any conclusions.

  • A Satirical Guide to Surviving the Subscription Economy

    Greetings, fellow owners! Or should I say, "esteemed tenants"? Welcome to the glorious, enlightened age of the Subscription Economy, a utopia where the messy burden of ownership has been lifted from our weary shoulders. Why clutter your life with things you actually *own* when you can rent everything, from your music to your car's heated seats, in a never-ending cycle of monthly payments? It's minimalist, it's modern, and it's the future!

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Techdirt ☛ Broadband Monopolies Are Mad Because California Won’t Let Them Rip Off Apartment Dwellers

  California’s new law simply makes it so consumers can opt out of such deals, without retaliation from their landlords. If landlords still try to force tenants to pay for broadband they don’t want and don’t use, the tenant can subtract the cost from their monthly rent.

  It needs to be clear that California’s effort is basically the bare minimum to rein in such anti-competitive relationships. So, of course, big ISPs like Comcast and AT&T are having a big hissy fit about it: [...]

• The Nation ☛ So Long as Oligarchs Control the Public Square, There Will Be Corruption

  Twenty years ago, many big-city markets had multiple, independently owned network affiliates. Now, because of relaxed oversight and increasing consolidation, apparent “competitors” often share resources or even combine operations.

• Patents

  • Capable of Repetition, But Avoiding Review—USPTO New Regulation Not Reviewed By OIRA

    The USPTO has put out a new NPRM, attempting to lock in place rules that were created without going through rulemaking in the prior Convicted Felon administration. While I have a lot to say about the substance of the rules—more on that next week—there’s also a severe procedural issue here.

• Trademarks

  • Right of Publicity

    • Stephen Hackett ☛ OpenAI Removes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. From Sora Models

      There’s nothing like a zillion dollar company flying by the seat of its pants.

    • The Guardian UK ☛ ‘Legacies condensed to AI slop’: OpenAI Sora videos of the dead raise alarm with legal experts

      Sora is not the only text-to-video generative AI tool out there, but it has become popular for two main reasons. First, it is the easiest way yet for users to star in their own deepfakes. Type a prompt and a 10-second video appears within minutes. It can then be shared on Sora’s own TikTok-style feed or exported elsewhere. Unlike the mass-produced, low-quality “AI slop” clogging the [Internet], these clips have unnervingly high production value.

• Copyrights

  • APNIC ☛ An Italian case study: Collateral damage from live-event site blocking with Piracy Shield

    The new Italian anti-piracy platform, Piracy Shield, requires Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block reported IPs and fully-qualified domain names (FQDNs) within just 30 minutes of identification. Supporters hail it as a highly effective system, often pointing to the large number of streaming resources blocked.

    Critics, however, highlight the darker side: Repeated cases of overblocking, including the unintended disruption of widely used services such as Google Drive. What remains missing is a clear view of the platform’s broader impact.

    Our study shines a light on what has so far been hidden, revealing: [...]

  • [Repeat] Digital Music News ☛ Japanese Government Formal Request to OpenAI Over Sora 2

    “Japan bears a responsibility to take the lead on making rules [concerning AI and copyright infringement], precisely because we are a country that has captivated the world with the creative power of anime, games, and music,” said Akihisa Shiozaki. Shiozaki has been a critic of OpenAI’s opt-in and laissez-faire attitude toward copyright infringement.