Leftovers

• Futurism ☛ The Wikipedia Page on "Brain Rot" Is Protected Until 2026 Due to Extensive Vandalism

  Wikipedia vandals have been tampering with pages since the dawn of the site’s existence back in 2001. Some is clever, some is dark — and a lot, as you saw above, is just insulting stupid.

• Roman Kashitsyn ☛ If composers were hackers

  Music is my first true loveComputer games are my zeroth true love.. The first time I got my hands on an old untuned guitar, I didn’t want to put it down. I found a summer job to buy my first instrument and pay for a teacher, and since then, music has been a constant source of joy in my life. Picking a degree in computer science over a music college was a tough choice for me.

  I can’t help but look at the world through the lens of my music obsession. There are many deep similarities between music and computing, but we won’t explore them in this article; I will instead explore a silly and subjective question: "If my favorite composers decided to write some code, which language would they pick?"

• Career/Education

  • The Verge ☛ Tech left teens fighting over scraps, and now it wants those too

    Truth is, there just aren’t many jobs for teens out there anymore, and most of them have chosen to simply remove themselves from the job market. In August of 2000, 52.3 percent of Americans between the ages of 16 and 19 were active in the labor force. In August of 2025, that number is just 34.8 percent.

    There are a ton of reasons why (which mostly boil down to “technology”), but regardless of the why, it’s bad for everyone.

  • Bruce Perens ☛ How I was placed in the “retarded” class in first grade.

    Many people have fond memories from school, and indeed I had friends there who I remember fondly and I enjoyed some of the experience. But that’s not how it started.

    It started, of course, on the first day of first grade.

  • Computational Complexity ☛ Computational Complexity: Bill's Bad Advice

    When you come across a possible research topic or problem, or have some idea, and are wondering if you want to pursue it, here is my bad advice: [...]

• Proprietary

  • RTL ☛ 2.7 million subscribers affected: Australia sues Microsoft over 'misleading' AI offer

    The software giant is accused of making "false or misleading" statements to around 2.7 million Australians who subscribe by auto-renewal to Microsoft 365 plans, which include a suite of online Office services.

  • The Register UK ☛ Australia sues Microsoft for misleading M365 users

    The consumer protection agency alleges that Redmond’s advice to users of Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans with auto-renewal was that “to maintain their subscription they must accept the integration of Copilot and pay higher prices for their plan, or, alternatively, cancel their subscription.”

    “The ACCC alleges this information provided to subscribers was false or misleading because there was an undisclosed third option, the Microsoft 365 Personal or Family Classic plans, which allowed subscribers to retain the features of their existing plan, without Copilot, at the previous lower price.”

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • LabX Media Group ☛ Impersonation Scandals Shake Academic Publishing

      Identity theft is a growing threat to academia. Fraudsters may impersonate reviewers or former colleagues to make sure articles they or their accomplices write receive favorable reviews. Journals may be hijacked, swindling authors into paying hundreds of dollars for useless publications. Or researchers may find their names on papers they never wrote.

    • Jonathan Faber ☛ RightOfPublicity.com Jonathan Faber will participate in WIPO Conversation on IP & Synthetic Media

    • Simon Willison ☛ Sora might have a 'pervert' problem on its hands

      This feels like an intractable problem to me: given the enormous array of fetishes it's hard to imagine a classifier that could protect people from having their likeness used in this way.

    • BoingBoing ☛ Cops hold kid at gunpoint over a bag of chips

      Allen thought he was going to die because an AI couldn't tell the difference between a firearm and a frigging bag of chips. Yeah, let's definitely start building this crap into weapons platforms and let them make their own decisions. What could go wrong?

  • Social Control Media

    • The Telegraph UK ☛ Jay Slater’s mother – how online trolls made my life hell

      Social media “sleuths” spread conspiracy theories that Jay was murdered over a drug debt; that his disappearance was a scam to raise money; or that the mafia had played a role.

  • Windows TCO / Windows Bot Nets

    • Threat Source ☛ Uncovering Qilin attack methods exposed through multiple cases

      In the second half of 2025, the ransomware group Qilin has continued to publish victim information on its leak site at a pace of more than 40 cases per month, making it one of the most impactful ransomware groups worldwide. The manufacturing sector has been the most affected, followed by professional and scientific services, and wholesale trade.

• Defence/Aggression

  • JURIST ☛ Top EU body finds both Meta and TikTok in breach of Digital Services Act

    The findings come after the initiation of two formal proceedings launched against Meta and TikTok. earlier this year. Both companies are being reviewed for their (non)compliance with legal obligations operating in the EU market.

    At present, TikTok is being examined to determine whether it has undertaken all necessary and possible measures to avoid addiction risks for its users. Additionally, the Commission is also looking into whether the platform provides mechanisms to prevent minors from accessing inappropriate content. META, in turn, is being assessed on its “obligations to assess and mitigate risks to civic discourse and electoral processes”.

  • Robert Reich ☛ Sunday thought: We're winning

    Last Saturday, more than 7 million of us poured into the streets to reject Trump’s dictatorship. That’s more than 2 percent of the adult population of the United States.

    Historical studies suggest that 3.5 percent of a population engaged in sustained nonviolent resistance can topple even the most brutal dictatorships — such as Chile under Pinochet and Serbia under Milosevic.

    Which means we’re almost there.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ China's ByteDance reportedly building a Steam competitor — 'GameTop' for overseas markets will distribute and publish games like any other store, while harboring a social space with AI-assisted creator tools

    China's ByteDance reportedly building a Steam competitor — 'GameTop' for overseas markets will distribute and publish games like any other store, while harboring a social space with AI-assisted creator tools

  • Mike Brock ☛ When Liberation Becomes Imperial Adventure

    The Venezuelan opposition is playing a game they think they understand. They believe they’re using Trump to liberate their country. They don’t realize Trump is using them to launch an undeclared hemispheric war that could destabilize the global order—and they’re helping him do it.

  • The Telegraph UK ☛ I’ve seen how civil servants work. The Home Office will never stop the grooming gangs

    Over half a decade of working with the Home Office on countering extremism, I saw it for myself, time and time again: a civil service culture that instinctively resists scrutiny of anything involving religion or ethnicity.

• Environment

  • Futurism ☛ Scientists Oppose Huge Array of Mirrors in Space That Shines Nighttime Sunlight on Wealthy Customers

    Astronomers, however, aren’t so gung-ho about the idea of a massive space mirror blinding the Earth with Sunlight.

    “The reflectors will be directing their light [even after they pass their target] because obviously they can’t shut that off,” John Berentine, an astronomer at the Silverado Hills Observatory told Space.com. “The beam reflected by these satellites is very intense, four times brighter than the full moon, and they will be flying multiple satellites in a formation. That will have an effect on wildlife in the directly illuminated area, but also, through atmospheric scattering, on the surrounding areas as well.”

  • The Barents Observer ☛ The mineral conflict in the high north

    "You can’t restore the Earth by destroying it. The only real option is to do something about our consumption. Do we really need to have three or four phones?"

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • YLE ☛ Furry paws take Finland's nature photo of the year

      Caught unprepared for such proximity, Saarinen said he found himself face to face with a lynx only a few metres away.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Futurism ☛ Sam Altman Now Has the Power to "Crash the Global Economy," Financial Analyst Warns

    In short, there’s an astronomical amount of money up in the air — so much so that the rest of the US economy now depends on the AI industry not dropping the ball. Or, as Bernstein Research analyst Stacy Rasgon put it in a note to investors, Sam Altman “has the power to crash the global economy for a decade or take us all to the promised land.”

  • TechXplore ☛ OpenAI big chip orders dwarf its revenues—for now

    "They will need hundreds of billions of dollars to live up to their obligations," said Gil Luria, managing director at D.A. Davidson, a financial consulting firm.

    The challenge is daunting: OpenAI doesn't expect to be profitable until 2029 and is forecasting billions in losses this year, despite generating about $13 billion in revenue.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • The Barents Observer ☛ Anti-war activist Anna hung up Ukrainian flags and started to wear blue and yellow clothes. She had to flee from her north Russian village

    Anna Stepanova knows well what it means to lose friends, face harassment and threats from neighbours, and be forced into exile. She still loves her village of Savinsky in Arkhangelsk region, but hates the Russian state, which she says deprives both its own population and neighbouring countries of a future.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • [Old] The Barents Observer ☛ Putin's justice ministry declares Barents Observer journalist Olesia Krivtsova a 'foreign agent'

    Krivtsova does not intend to comply with any of the demands requested by the Russian authorities.

    "Nothing will change for me in my work. I am not going to comply with any demands from the Ministry of Justice. I consider the Russian authorities to be terrorists. And I do not comply with the demands of terrorists," says Krivtsova.

  • The Barents Observer ☛ Russian court starts case against Barents Observer journalist Georgii Chentemirov

    "There are already many other similar cases: journalists are convicted and arrested in absentia on charges of "undesirability". These are unlawful measures: the status of "undesirable organisations" is illegal, as is my status as a "foreign agent". I will continue to work," Chentemirov emphasises.

  • The Barents Observer ☛ With Denis listed on Friday, half of Barents Observer's journalists are now 'foreign agents'

    The repressive authorities also point to the fact that Zagore works for an 'undesirable organisation' - a branding the Barents Observer got on February 7 this year, one day after the news outlet won over the Russian state in the European Court of Human Rights.

    The two other Barents Observer journalists already on the list are Georgii Chentemirov and Olesia Krivtsova.

  • The Barents Observer ☛ Murmansk news-online fined for article about Barents Observer lawyer

    The Prosecutor General's Office recognised Barents Observer as an 'undesirable organisation' in February this year. The editorial team did not agree with this decision and filed a lawsuit against the department. However, the Tverskoy District Court in Moscow sided with the Prosecutor General's Office. Barents Observer is currently appealing this decision.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Tedium ☛ The Man Who Keeps Predicting The Web’s Death

    In looking for examples of people calling the Web dead, I learned that, apparently, you can say the Web is dying for 30 years and get away with it.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Pete Brown ☛ Physical media is great until you have to move it - Exploding Comma

    Now I have built the music collection back up to the point where I probably have more CDs than I did prior to that purge.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Trademarks

  • Right of Publicity

    • Futurism ☛ AI Is Even Putting Animal Actors Out of Work

      In other words, if human actors are already on the chopping block, it’s only a matter of time until the animal kingdom lands on the chopping block — if they aren’t already, that is.

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ The Streaming Piracy Crisis Suppressant That Nobody Wants To Discuss

    History has shown that if the source of pirated content isn't eliminated, one way or another it will simply reappear somewhere else. Targeting consumer-facing streaming sites does cause disruption, but not as much as targeting the supplier of their streams. Or targeting that supplier's supplier and then hitting the supplier above them. Effective in theory, perhaps, but in the world of 'CDN leeching', pirate streams and legal streams share the same supplier.

  • Matt Birchler ☛ Reddit sues Perplexity, but maybe Reddit are the baddies?

    I know for many people, seeing headlines that Reddit was suing Perplexity was all they needed to hear; obviously Perplexity is in the wrong, right? Masnick makes the case that it's just not that straightforward.

  • Jamie Zawinski ☛ Star Wars Holiday Special

    3. Despite all that, being even Star Wars-adjacent means that any attempt at an unlicensed screening would cause the sky to blacken with lawyers.