Leftovers

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Hidden Crotch Detail Solves a 500-Year-Old Leonardo Da Vinci Mystery

    Hiding in plain sight for centuries!

  • Latvia ☛ Latvian academic wins international optics honour

    Tatjana Pladere, a leading researcher at the University of Latvia, has been awarded the Optica Ambassador title — a distinction granted by the international professional society Optica (formerly The Optical Society of America) in the fields of optics and photonics, reports Labs of Latvia.

  • Science Alert ☛ ESA Investigating Fireball Over Europe After Meteorites Strike German Home

    They reportedly punched a football-sized hole in the roof.

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists 'Re-Watch' Videos Seen by Mice by Studying Their Brains

    A free episode idea for Black Mirror.

• Hardware

  • CNX Software ☛ NXP i.MX 93W wireless MPU SiP pairs dual-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor with NXP iW610 WiFi 6, Bluetooth LE, and 805.15.4 radio

    NXP i.MX 93W is the company’s first integrated wireless MPU System-in-Package (SiP) and combines a dual-core Cortex-A55 processor (NXP i.MX 93) with an iW610 WiFi 6, Bluetooth LE, and 802.15.4 tri-radio into a single chip.

  • CNX Software ☛ Texas Instruments MSPM0G5187 and AM13Ex MCUs integrate TinyEngine NPU for Edge Hey Hi (AI) applications

    Texas Instruments MSPM0G5187 and AM13Ex are two new microcontroller (MCU) families featuring the company’s  TinyEngine neural processing unit (NPU) to enable low-latency, high-efficiency Edge AI/Machine Learning inference on the chips. TI claims that the TinyEngine NPU can run Hey Hi (AI) models with up to 90 times lower latency and more than 120 times lower energy utilization per inference than similar MCUs without an accelerator.  The MSPM0G5187 is a general-purpose, low-power Arm Cortex-M0+ MCU, while the AM13Ex Arm Cortex-M33 microcontroller targets real-time motor control, starting with the AM13E23019 SKU.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Straits Times ☛ Parents in Japan to get Instagram notifications when teens repeatedly search for suicide content

    It will also introduce a feature that restricts access to posts about drugs and dangerous behaviour.

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Can Finally Explain Rare Blood Clots Linked to COVID Vaccines

    Can we stop it from happening again?

  • The Straits Times ☛ A winning smile: Malaysian man shows off record-setting 42 teeth in viral Fentanylware (CheeTok) video

    With 10 more teeth than the average person, he has been turning heads online.

• Proprietary

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Buttondown LLC ☛ LLMs are bad at vibing specifications

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ In wake of outage, Amazon calls upon senior engineers to address issues created by 'Gen-AI assisted changes,' report claims — recent 'high blast radius' incidents stir up changes for code approval

      An Amazon executive called its engineers into a meeting to deal with the recent spate of incidents on its platform that had a "high blast radius" and were related to "Gen-AI assisted changes."

    • Scoop News Group ☛ Federal judge blocks Perplexity’s Hey Hi (AI) browser from making Amazon purchases

      Amazon sued the Hey Hi (AI) browser company last year, accusing them of computer fraud, accessing password protected accounts and buying items.

    • New York Times ☛ Mother of Tumbler Ridge Shooting Victim Sues OpenAI

      The company banned the shooter’s Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot account but did not alert the authorities, a move that amounted to fatal negligence, the family claims.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • EDRI ☛ The eID Wallet still doesn’t deserve your full trust

      Despite its imminent deployment, the EU’s new eID Wallet is not yet fit for purpose in terms of safeguarding the rights of its users. EDRi and nine CSOs urge the European Commission to amend the draft implementing acts to ensure that users cannot be tracked, forced to share sensitive data nor to provide their legal identity where this is not required by law.

    • AccessNow ☛ Shadowy surveillance: Access Now maps the companies implementing the EU’s migration policies

      Access Now’s latest research exposes the private sector companies building and profiting from the EU’s extensive surveillance infrastructure.

    • AccessNow ☛ From cooperation to complicity: meet the companies powering the EU’s war on migrants

      In new research, Access Now reveals the private sector companies helping to build Fortress Europe, via relationships with the EU agencies focused on migration and border security.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Daniel Pocock ☛ Iran intelligence operation prevails on Australian soil: whole world watching as refugee tricked

    The government has tried to downplay the seriousness of the situation by telling us that refugees are free to change their mind. The news media has digested this garbage and produced endless stories about a refugee changing their mind. None of them tell the story for what it is: Iran conducted an operation to locate the refugees on Australian soil and Iran executed that mission successfully. When the Iranian embassy sent a diplomatic vehicle to collect the errant refugee from their safe house, Iran discovered the location of all other refugees in the same hotel.

    [...]

    By coincidence, one family member is married to a high-profile defector from the Soviet Union and the son of another high-profile Soviet defector was in our university. During the Cold War, western countries became experts on the process of helping these people and their families. The risks of people becoming homesick, changing their minds or being manipulated for intelligence purposes were all well understood. Maybe it is time for the whole Border Force to set up a reading group for John le Carré spy novels.

  • The Strategist ☛ When the world changes, so must our defence: Australian spending should exceed 2 percent

    The Iran War, more than four years of Russia’s war on Ukraine and tensions in the Indo-Pacific have prompted most democratic nations to reset defence strategies and budgets.

  • JURIST ☛ Drone strikes put Haiti civilians at risk, rights group says

    Haitian security forces, partnered with US-based private contractors, conducted a series of drone strikes over the last year in densely populated urban areas to target members of criminal groups, but consequently killing and injuring civilians, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday.

  • New York Times ☛ Black Rain and Health Fears After Strikes on Iran Fuel Depots

    Health experts warn of long-term respiratory and neurological risks as smoke from burning oil spreads across the region.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • New York Times ☛ Ukraine Can Now Manufacture ‘China-Free’ Drones

      The country has prioritized self-sufficiency in producing a crucial battlefield weapon, though weaning itself fully off cheaper Chinese components is difficult.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukraine Says Key Missile-Parts Plant Hit; Russia Claims Civilians Killed

      Kyiv and Moscow gave differing accounts of a Ukrainian strike on Russia's Bryansk border region, with the local governor saying six civilians were killed and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reporting a hit on a missile-component plant.

    • LRT ☛ Getting Ukraine, Moldova into EU by 2030 is Lithuania’s ‘strategic goal’ – president

      Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said Tuesday that membership for Ukraine and Moldova in the European Union by 2030 is a strategic goal for Lithuania.

    • France24 ☛ Modern wars grow interconnected as Ukraine and Russia seek strategic foothold in Iran war

      Eve Irvine is pleased to welcome Scott Lucas, journalist and Professor of American Studies and International Politics at the Clinton Institute, University College Dublin. The war in Ukraine and the escalating confrontation with Iran are no longer separate geopolitical theatres, explains Professor Lucas. They are increasingly interconnected through technology, alliances, and strategic calculations. Ukraine’s experience in what has become the world’s first large-scale drone war gives it a unique capability to assist the United States and regional partners.

    • France24 ☛ Russia's deportation of Ukrainian children a 'crime against humanity', says UN inquiry

      Russia's deportation and forcible transfer of "thousands" of Ukrainian children during the war in Ukraine amounts to a crime against humanity, a United Nations team of investigators said Tuesday. Moscow has failed to establish a system facilitating returns, focusing instead on long-term placement of the children with families or institutions in Russia while relatives were not informed of their fate.

    • France24 ☛ Kyiv says it hit 'key' Russian military factory in Bryansk strike, Russia says six dead

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that a "key" military factory in Russia's western city of Bryansk had been targetted and hit in a missile strike. Russia earlier accused Kyiv of a "terrorist" attack in Bryansk that it said killed six civilians and wounded at least 37 people, without specifying what the target was.

    • France24 ☛ Oil shortage, not removal of sanctions, will boost Russia's energy exports, expert says

      US President The Insurrectionist says he's weighing lifting oil sanctions in an effort to keep energy prices down, in a move that is seen benefiting Russia and its financing of the war in Ukraine. Speaking with FRANCE 24's Mark Owen, Sergey Vakulenko, Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre, explains that sanctions have done little so far to stem oil exports, but a crude shortage is much more likely to boost Russian energy sales abroad.

    • ADF ☛ Russian Mercenaries Take Control of Eastern CAR

      Russian mercenaries have taken control of the border zone shared by the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Sudan, effectively turning a region known for its gold mines into a “gray zone” controlled by a private military corporation. Russia’s Lobaye Invest, which is affiliated with the Wagner Group, controls mining operations in eastern CAR.

    • New York Times ☛ U.S. Eases Limits on Russian Energy as Oil Prices Soar

      The volatility in energy markets because of the war in Iran could not come at a better time for President Vladimir V. Putin.

    • Marcy Wheeler ☛ The Con Convicted Felon Used to Attempt to Hide How He’s Rewarding Russia for Helping Iran Target Americans

      Americans deserve to know whether Russian targeting assistance helped kill Benjamin Pennington before Convicted Felon rewards Vladimir Putin for his own strategic idiocy.

    • France24 ☛ As energy prices soar, Russia emerges as major winner of Middle East war

      Russia has so far been the only winner from the war in the Middle East as energy prices soar and attention for its war against Ukraine has faded, EU Council President Antonio Costa has said. Late on Monday, US President The Insurrectionist and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed the war amid reports that Convicted Felon's administration is considering reducing oil sanctions on Russia - in a bid to boost world supplies of oil.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Green Party UK ☛ war on Iran shows dependence on fossil fuels makes economies vulnerable to oil shocks

      Responding to the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) finding that the cost of Net Zero is less than the cost of the 2022 Ukraine oil price shock, the Green Party has today said we need to transition to clean energy as quickly as possible to protect people and the economy from future oil shocks. 

    • New York Times ☛ San Francisco Bay Area Residents Weigh Possibility of BART Reductions

      The Bay Area Rapid Transit system was once so successful, it could rely mostly on riders to sustain itself. But the pandemic dealt BART an unusually heavy blow.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China-North Korea trains to resume after 6-year halt

      Passenger train services between China and North Korea will resume this week six years after their suspension due to the Covid-19 pandemic, rail authorities in Beijing confirmed on Tuesday. Train journeys between the two countries were halted in 2020 as they imposed strict border closures to prevent the coronavirus from spreading. While China has since […]

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ As Chinese consumers’ belts stay tightened, Beijing banks on foreign tourists splurging

    But economists caution that such spending by foreign visitors is unlikely to solve China’s deeper consumption problems.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • New York Times ☛ YouTube Adds Tool to Help Public Figures Report Fake Videos

      Social media companies are under pressure to crack down on so-called deepfake videos that use deceptive images of real people.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • BIA Net ☛ The price of a heart gesture: abduction, torture, and impunity

    İsmail İshak Arslan was tortured by police in a civilian vehicle after making a heart gesture toward the then-interior minister before the 2023 presidential election.

  • AccessNow ☛ Submission to the Constitutional Court of Kazakhstan on 2022 internet shutdowns

    With increasing development of Hey Hi (AI) applications, it's crucial for Sri Lanka to
    develop a strong foundational guide for the use of emerging technology.

Monopolies/Monopsonies