Leftovers

• Hackaday ☛ Magic Magikarp Makes Moves

  One of the most influential inventions of the 20th century was Big Mouth Billy Bass. A celebrity bigger than the biggest politicians or richest movie stars, there’s almost nothing that could beat Billy. That is, until [Kiara] from Kiara’s Workshop built a Magikarp version of Big Mouth Billy Bass.

• Science

  • Stanford University ☛ COLLEGE and computer science among most enrolled 2025 fall course

    The most enrolled courses largely consist of computer science offerings, along with other STEM classes and core requirements.

  • New York Times ☛ C.D.C. Vaccine Committee Ends Recommendation That All Newborns Receive Hepatitis B Shots

    In a move toward Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s goal of upending vaccine policy, the committee recommended delaying the shots for infants whose mothers test negative for the virus.

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Discover The First Single Gene to Directly Cause Mental Illness

    Surprisingly simple.

  • Science Alert ☛ Vomiting Syndrome Linked to Cannabis Is on The Rise in The US

    Why is it happening?

  • Science Alert ☛ This Prehistoric Bird Choked to Death on 800 Rocks, And No One Knows Why

    What the heck was it trying to do?

  • Science Alert ☛ Complex Life May Be a Billion Years Older Than We Thought

    A new analysis suggests it evolved in surprising ways.

  • Science Alert ☛ A Rare Cancer Is Surging in Young People, And Experts Are Puzzled

    A concerning trend is emerging.

  • Science Alert ☛ Supercomputer Creates One of The Most Realistic Virtual Brains Ever Seen

    "The door is open."

  • Science Alert ☛ Oral Health And Diabetes Have a Crucial Link, Expert Reveals

    Understanding the connection is essential.

• Hardware

  • CNX Software ☛ Rikomagic DS08 – A Rockchip RK3588-powered 8K digital signage player with RTC and watchdog support

    Rikomagic DS08 is a Rockchip RK3588-powered Android 13 digital signage player with 8K and 4K HDMI video outputs, RTC and watchdog support, and support for portrait and landscape orientation. It looks to be an update to the Rockchip RK3288-powered Rikikomagic DS02 introduced in 2020.

  • Hackaday ☛ Garage Fridge Gets New DIY Controller

    [Rick] had a problem. His garage refrigerator was tasked with a critical duty—keeping refreshing beverages at low temperature. Unfortunately, it had failed—the condenser was forever running, or not running at all. The beverages were either frozen, or lukewarm, regardless of the thermostat setting. There was nothing for it—the controller had to be rebuilt from scratch.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • New York Times ☛ Running Out of Time, Republicans in Congress Still Lack a Health Plan

    Top Republicans have said they want to produce a proposal in short order to counter Democrats pressing for an extension of health care subsidies. They have not gotten far.

  • JURIST ☛ US dispatch, day 2: Pennsylvania police officer testifies Mangione gave false name, carried $7,000 during McDonald’s arrest

    Editor’s note: This is Day 2 of JURIST’s coverage of Mangione’s suppression hearings. Read Day 1 here.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Dangerous levels of toxic chemicals found in blood of Indonesia’s waste workers

    Many of the chemicals are linked to hormonal disruption, metabolic disorders and reproductive health problems.

  • Stanford University ☛ National Academy of Medicine elects three Stanford Medicine professors for membership

    Three Stanford Medicine professors were recently elected to the National Academy of Medicine. The NAM is an esteemed independent organization that provides advice and recommendations on national health issues.

  • Futurism ☛ Scientists Testing GLP-1s for Overweight Dogs and Cats

    "I think this is going to be the next big thing."

  • The Straits Times ☛ ‘Superbugs’ surge to record levels in South Korea, with infections near 45,000

    The health authorities say the surge shows how the fight against infectious disease has fundamentally shifted.

  • Latvia ☛ Survey: Many in Latvia concerned about pension age

    The majority, or 68%, of Latvian residents are anxious about retirement, and the main cause for concern, cited by nearly as many – 67% – of respondents, is a lack of money, followed by health concerns. This was revealed in a survey conducted by the insurance company Ergo and the research agency Norstat during "Your Pension Week," Ergo said on 5 December.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Trial durian plantation in Yunnan raises hopes for China’s plans to grow popular S-E Asian fruit

    China is the world’s largest consumer and importer of fresh durian.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Oprah Winfrey praises Australia’s social control media ban for children

    She was particularly concerned about the impact of the internet on young boys.

• Proprietary

  • Qt ☛ Organizing ID-Based Translations with Labels in Qt Linguist

    Translating large Qt applications can be challenging, especially when using ID-based translations. 
    While text-based translations are organized by context (the class or namespace where the translation 
    occurs), ID-based translations have historically lacked this organizational structure. In large projects 
    with hundreds or thousands of ID-based translation strings, translators were left navigating a single, 
    overwhelming list under "<unnamed context>".

  • Digital Music News ☛ Billboard Owner Penske Media Steps Up Surveillance Giant Google Antitrust Attack in Amended Suit, Alleges a Choice Between Permitting ‘Underpayment or Suffering Existential Search Traffic Declines’

    Billboard and Rolling Stone owner Penske Media has taken its Surveillance Giant Google antitrust lawsuit to the next level with an amended complaint. Meanwhile, the court has rejected the tech giant’s dismissal motion. Penske submitted the 108-page amended action yesterday, after filing the original suit in September.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / RAG / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ AI gadget makers are chasing problems that don't exist, Logitech CEO says — also details supply chain and pricing strategy

      Logitech chief executive Hanneke Faber used an interview with Bloomberg, marking her second anniversary in the role, to question the rush toward standalone Hey Hi (AI) hardware.

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ Clownflare says it has fended off 416 billion Hey Hi (AI) bot scrape requests in five months — CEO warns of dramatic shift for internet business model

      Clownflare CEO Matthew Prince said that blocking Hey Hi (AI) bots and giving website owners the option to license their content to Hey Hi (AI) companies could help maintain online publication's viability as a business in the future.

    • Futurism ☛ IBM CEO Says the Math Just Doesn’t Add Up on Its Competitors’ Hey Hi (AI) Spending

      "It’s my view that there’s no way you’re going to get a return on that."

    • Futurism ☛ OpenAI Is Suddenly in Major Trouble

      "They’re going to end up just like MySpace did."

    • Futurism ☛ Anti-AI Activist on the Run as Police Warn That He’s Armed and Dangerous

      Anti-AI activist Sam Kirchner allegedly threatened to shoot and kill Proprietary Chaffbot Company workers.

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ AMD CEO Lisa Su 'emphatically' rejects talk of an Hey Hi (AI) bubble — says claims are 'somewhat overstated' [Ed: But she profits from selling this "Hey Hi" crap, a false promise to fake "demand" with]

      AMD CEO Lisa Su used her appearance at WIRED’s Big Interview conference in San Francisco to push back against growing speculation that the Hey Hi (AI) sector is overheating.

    • RAGging my brain

      The Idea

      My original idea was to study how to RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) an LLM model by inserting something potentially useful to it.

      I chose qwen3-coder as my language model, and qwen3-embedding as my embedding model, both easily available via Ollama.

      My current work laptop is not powerful enough for any of this work, so I used my personal desktop computer for the testing, with AMD’s ROCm containers.

    • Redmine RAG system

      The Goal

      The goal was to extract all issues from a Redmine instance, anonymize the data, and build a local RAG system for semantic search and Q&A.

      Just like with the previous experiment with Bugzilla it started with data extraction. I planned to make a simple bulk download via Redmine Hey Hi (AI) Then came the first problem. Redmine’s API doesn’t return journal entries (comments) when using the project-level endpoint, even with the include=journals parameter. I tried out different ways but nothing worked. The solution was, after all, to change the strategy and fetch each issue individually via /issues/{id}.json. This was much slower but guaranteed complete data including all comments.

    • Scoop News Group ☛ More evidence your Hey Hi (AI) agents can be turned against you

      Aikido found that Hey Hi (AI) coding tools from Google, Anthropic, Proprietary Chaffbot Company and others regularly embed untrusted prompts into software development workflows.

    • Futurism ☛ Police Admit Hey Hi (AI) Surveillance Panopticon Still Has Issues With “Some Demographic Groups”

      "This has meant that in some circumstances it is more likely to incorrectly match Black and Asian people than their white counterparts."

  • Windows TCO / Windows Bot Nets

    • SANS ☛ AutoIT3 Compiled Scripts Dropping Shellcodes, (Fri, Dec 5th)

      AutoIT3[1] is a powerful language that helps to built nice applications for backdoored Windows environments, mainly to automate tasks.

    • Security Week ☛ US Organizations Warned of Chinese Malware Used for Long-Term Persistence

      Warp Panda has been using the BrickStorm, Junction, and GuestConduit malware in attacks against US organizations.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • The Straits Times ☛ India weighs greater phone-location surveillance; Apple, Surveillance Giant Google and Samsung protest

      The firms have protested against the move over privacy concerns.

    • Privacy International ☛ A Call for Class Action: how people are reclaiming control over their health data

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Strategist ☛ Want an explanation for China’s nuclear build-up? It’s not in the new white paper

    News last week that China had published a white paper on arms control seemed promising, because it raised hopes that Beijing would provide some rationale or plan for its nuclear expansion [...]

  • New York Times ☛ China’s Mad at Japan, and Pop Stars Are Paying for It

    Beijing is curbing Japanese movies, music and art as it seeks to punish Tokyo for its support of Taiwan.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Japan rebuts China’s second letter to UN as dispute simmers

    China had directed a second missive to the UN complaining about Japan.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Japan issues safety advisory in China ahead of Nanjing Massacre anniversary

    TOKYO, Dec 5 - The Japanese embassy in China issued a safety advisory on Friday ahead of next week's anniversary of \"the Nanjing Incident\", or the Nanjing Massacre, which it said is considered particularly sensitive.

  • Meduza ☛ Unpacking the paradoxes of Poland’s migration debate — Meduza

  • JURIST ☛ Kenya accuses UK soldiers of human rights violations and sexual misconduct

    Kenya’s parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday accused British soldiers of perpetrating decades of sexual misconduct, violence, human rights violations, and environmental harm during their tenure in the country.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Straits Times ☛ China's three major airlines extend refunds and Japan flight changes to March 2026: Report

      The existing policy was set to expire at the end of 2025.

    • The Straits Times ☛ India withdraws pilot rest policy after IndiGo chaos

      IndiGo has apologised for “the immense inconvenience and distress” caused to travellers.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • New York Times ☛ How Kit Kat Was Killed: Video Shows What a Waymo Couldn’t See

      Surveillance video shows a woman crouching beside a Waymo self-driving taxi, trying to lure a beloved neighborhood cat to safety. A second later, the car drove off.

• Finance

  • Digital Music News ☛ Adidas Defeats Angry Shareholder Appeal Over Kanye Deal Implosion — Athletic Giant Accused of Concealing Antisemitic Outbursts, Meltdowns

    Adidas prevailed against an appeal by shareholders who alleged the company committed fraud in concealing antisemitic behavior by Kanye West before its partnership with the rapper dissolved. German footwear and apparel brand Adidas defeated an appeal by U.S. shareholders on Wednesday, December 3.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • The Straits Times ☛ US embassy in Seoul launches fast-track visa service for major South Korean firms and partners

    The working group was created after September's mass detention of 317 South Korean workers in the US.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Pandas and ping-pong: Macron ending China visit on lighter note

    Mr Pooh-tin and First Lady Peng Liyuan showed the Macrons around the centuries-old Dujiangyan Dam

  • JURIST ☛ Advocacy group urges Macron to address human rights issues during China visit

    Human Rights Watch urged French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday to treat human rights as an integral part of France’s broader policy with China. Rather than treating them as distinct from economic and political priorities, the group says France should take concrete measures to uphold human rights in Sino-French relations.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Loved ones fear for pro-Tibet student activist detained in China

    Her friends warned her not to go. But pro-Tibet activist Zhang Yadi wanted to see her family and so travelled home to China this summer, hoping the trip would go as smoothly as previous visits. Instead, she disappeared and has not been seen since. Relatives told AFP the 22-year-old was detained by Chinese authorities and […]

  • France24 ☛ Xi holds his ground as Macron's visit to China only yields modest returns

    Emmanuel Macron’s three-day state visit to China ended with only modest gains, highlighting the limits of European leverage in Beijing at a time of deepening geopolitical tensions and a widening trade imbalance. For in-depth analysis and a deeper perspective, William Hilderbrandt welcomes Laure Pallez, Senior Partner at Mascaret, specialising in US, Europe and China.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Federal employees who left ‘DEI’ roles still fired under Convicted Felon administration purge, lawsuit claims

    The total number of federal employees impacted by the DEI rollback is unknown, but the lawsuit suggests it could be “potentially in the thousands."

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • The Straits Times ☛ Taiwan opposition says ban of China's Xiaohongshu app is censorship

    The island's Interior Ministry cited security risks as a reason for banning the social control media app.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Internet Society ☛ Community Snapshot—November

    Our global chapters work to keep the Internet a force for good. This brief overview covers just some of the things they achieved in November

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • New York Times ☛ Netflix Changes Course Again With Warner Bros. Deal

    The streaming giant has changed its strategy many times over the years. But the decision to get deeply into theatrical releases may be the most startling yet.

  • Zimbabwe ☛ Netflix Just Won the Streaming Wars with $82.7 Billion Warner Bros. Takeover

    Netflix has announced its largest acquisition to date: Warner Bros., including HBO, in a deal valued at $82.7 billion.

  • France24 ☛ Netflix to acquire Warner Bros studio, HBO Max for $72 billion

    Streaming giant DRM spreader Netflix has agreed to acquire Warner Bros studios and its streaming business for $72 billion, the two American companies announced in a statement on Friday. This acquisition would bring two of the industry’s biggest players in film and TV under one roof.

  • New York Times ☛ Netflix to Buy Warner Bros in $83 Billion Deal

    The deal to acquire the Hollywood behemoth’s television and film studios as well as HBO Max will bulk up the world’s biggest paid streaming service.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros. Studio and Streaming Business, Including HBO and HBO Max, In $83 Billion Mega-Deal—Industry Groups Vehemently Oppose

    Netflix announces a deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery in an $83 billion monster agreement. But some industry groups are opposed to the massive merger.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Netflix to acquire key Warner Bros. assets in blockbuster $72B deal

    Netflix Inc. has inked an agreement to acquire several Warner Bros Discovery Inc. units for $72 billion in cash and stock. The companies announced the deal today. It follows a bidding contest that included Comcast Corp. and Paramount Skydance Corp., which is backed by Oracle Corp. Executive Chair Larry Ellison.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Digital Music News ☛ Live Nation, Ticketmaster Stare Down Possible Class Certification — And ‘Millions’ of Potential Members — In Multiyear Antitrust Suit

  Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary are staring down the possibility of class certification in a years-old lawsuit submitted by allegedly shortchanged ticketing customers. Judge George Wu just recently finalized a tentative ruling on the plaintiffs’ class certification push – albeit under seal, with the appropriate document emailed to the involved parties.

• Patents

  • JUVE ☛ Mewburn Ellis takes on experienced litigator in life sciences [Ed: SPAM disguised as news; this is the JUVE business model]

    Mewburn Ellis has appointed Aled Richards-Jones as a new partner in its growing life sciences practice. He brings extensive experience in patent monopoly litigation, with a particular focus on life sciences and SPC disputes. Richards-Jones has managed parallel patent monopoly litigation concerning small molecules and biologics across Europe, the US and beyond.

  • JUVE ☛ Hoffmann Eitle continues expansion of litigation practice with Bird & Bird counsel [Ed: And also pretending that the hiring of one young person is "newsworthy"; follow the money... (sponsors)]

    Jonas Smeets (36) will start as an associate partner in Hoffmann Eitle’s Düsseldorf office on 1 March 2026. The firm has had a presence in Düsseldorf for some time, but is now looking to expand its lawyer team there.

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Subject Matter Eligibility Declarations (SMEDs) to Overcome Eligibility Rejections

    USPTO issues new guidance on using Rule 132 declarations to overcome § 101 rejections. Here's how practitioners can prepare effective SMEDs.

  • Kangaroo Courts

    • JUVE ☛ Hoffmann-La Roche lands PI against Menarini Diagnostics from UPC [Ed: UPC is illegal; JUVE knows this, but it is paid to pretend otherwise and lend credibility to this monstrosity]

      Glucose-monitoring devices represent a highly competitive market, as diabetes affects millions worldwide. Continuous glucose-monitoring systems (CGM) have become particularly popular, allowing users to monitor their blood-glucose levels continuously via mobile phone. Several companies are currently battling over this technology at the UPC.

• Copyrights

  • Digital Music News ☛ 50 Cent Expands Litigation Against ‘Skillhouse’ Director Over ‘Brazen and Unauthorized’ Use of NIL Rights

    50 Cent doubles down on his lawsuit against Skillhouse producer Ryan Kavanaugh, alleging the unauthorized use of his image damaged his reputation. Curis “50 Cent” Jackson is enjoying the warm reception of the DRM spreader Netflix Sean “Diddy” Combs docuseries he produced, but not all is well for the rapper and business mogul. ]

  • Press Gazette ☛ Meta signs raft of Hey Hi (AI) content licensing deals

    People Inc is among major publishers whose real-time content will appear on Meta Hey Hi (AI) assistant.

• Gemini* and Gopher

  • Personal/Opinions

    • 🖼️ xkcd — Chessboard Alignment #3177