Leftovers

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Does Closing Your Eyes Help You Hear? A Surprising Study Has The Answer

    It works for Daredevil.

  • Science Alert ☛ How Long Poop Stays in Your Body May Impact Your Health, Study Finds

    It makes a difference.

  • Science Alert ☛ The Lyrid Meteor Shower Is About to Peak, With Better Views Than Usual

    Here's when to see up to 20 shooting stars an hour.

  • Science Alert ☛ A Bolivian Mummy's Tooth Is Rewriting The History of Scarlet Fever

    Another disease that appears to have spread long before Columbus.

• Hardware

  • The Straits Times ☛ Droids ran a half-marathon this weekend in record time. It’s a showcase of what Chinese tech can do

    China is keen to stake its position both as an early adopter and leader in humanoid robots.

  • France24 ☛ 'New era': Humanoid robot outruns humans in Beijing half-marathon, beats world record

    A humanoid robot on Sunday won a half-marathon for robots in Beijing in 50 minutes 26 seconds, beating the human world record time and showcasing China's technological advances.

  • France24 ☛ Humans far behind as robot breaks record at Beijing half marathon

    A humanoid robot competing against flesh-and-blood runners broke the world record at a Beijing half marathon on Sunday, showcasing the rapid technological advancement achieved by Chinese makers. Humanoid robots have become a common sight in China in recent years, in the media as well as in public spaces.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Futurism ☛ Hospital Reuses Syringes, Infects Hundreds of Children With HIV

    "They filled the same syringe and gave it to one child, then filled it again and gave it to another."

  • The Straits Times ☛ Vapes in South Korea to face same regulations as cigarettes starting April 24

    The tougher rules come amid concerns that vapes have been sold to minors

  • France24 ☛ Food security under threat as Middle East war disrupts fertiliser supply

    Around one-third of global fertiliser production comes from the Gulf region, making the area’s stability crucial for global food supply chains. With the Strait of Hormuz, an essential transit route for energy and commodities, facing repeated disruptions, concerns are growing over the impact on fertiliser exports and deliveries worldwide. FRANCE 24's Shirli Sitbon has the analysis.

  • Futurism ☛ Scientists Intrigued by Nasal Spray That Reverse Brain Aging in Mice, Say It May Work on Humans as Well

    It just takes two sprays into the nasal cavity to make a difference.

• Proprietary

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Futurism ☛ The Florida Mass Shooter’s Conversations With Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot Are Worse Than You Could Possibly Imagine

      If a human uses an Hey Hi (AI) chatbot to plan a mass shooting, is the company liable for the ensuing deaths?

    • Futurism ☛ AI Company Known for Teen Suicides Launches New Feature to Turn Books Into Roleplaying Experiences

      The company wants to make books "impossible to ignore."

  • Social Control Media

    • NYPost ☛ American Airlines revives 90s-era aircraft cards now trending across social control media

      American Airlines is launching retro-inspired trading cards for passengers starting in May.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

      • Kevin Boone ☛ Trying to live without a smartphone in 2026

        This article is about my attempts to dump my smartphone. I’ll be asking whether this is even possible these days, or whether smartphones are such a feature of modern life that we just can’t manage without them.

        I have to point out that I’m not talking about giving up mobile phones completely. Cellular mobile telephony is a technological marvel, one of the greatest engineering achievements in human history. Mobile telephony isn’t just convenient, it increases safety and security for just about everybody. I can’t even imagine being without a mobile phone these days. In practice, I never am. But do I need to carry around a supercomputer in my pocket?

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Straits Times ☛ North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw ballistic missile tests, state media says

    This is the fourth ballistic missile launch in April and the seventh in 2026.

  • Defence Web ☛ Modernizing Perimeter Security With A Reliable Counter Drone Solution

    Securing a facility used to mean locking gates and monitoring fences, but the threat landscape has shifted upward.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China deploys warship for Pacific drills as Japan tensions rise

    A naval task group led by a Chinese warship will sail through the Bashi Channel into the Western Pacific Ocean.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • NYPost ☛ China’s silent war: How Beijing armed, funded, and enabled Iran

      China is a central actor in the war with Iran, though it remains largely unnamed in Washington’s public debate. Without Beijing’s money, oil purchases, sanctions‑busting networks, and satellite support, the Iranian regime would not be able to fight. The story begins with energy and finance.

    • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Todd Blanche Puts Dmitry Firtash’s Onetime Lawyer In Charge of Criminalizing the Russian Investigation

      The biggest reason Joe DiGenova is a wildly inappropriate person to lead an attempt to criminalize the Russian investigation is his past efforts to get paid by Russian-backed Ukrainians to do the same thing.

    • France24 ☛ Bulgaria's pro-Russian former president takes strong lead

      Bulgaria’s ex-president Rumen Radev is on course to win a parliamentary election, according to exit polls,  but may fall short of a governing majority. His Progressive Bulgaria coalition leads with, in a vote marked by low turnout and deep political instability, the country’s eighth election in five years. Radev warns another vote would be “a disaster,” as Bulgaria grapples with corruption, fragmentation, and its EU-Russia balancing act. Jean-Emile Jammine speaks with Renne Traicova, Managing board at the Balkan Free Media Initiative.

    • Latvia ☛ Baltics reject Fico's flight plan to Moscow

      Latvia and Lithuania have not allowed Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico's plane to use their airspace to travel to the May 9 celebrations in Moscow, reports the Slovak portal "SME", referring to a video address by Fico himself.

    • LRT ☛ Occupation through education: how Russia took over Ukrainian schools

      Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territories is usually described in the language of war: front lines, trenches, drones, artillery. But another battle unfolds inside institutions and especially schools. Whoever controls the curriculum, the symbols on the walls, and history lessons controls the official version of reality.

    • France24 ☛ Ukrainian best-selling author, Andrey Kurkov speaks to France 24

      Andrey Kurkov is Ukraine's most prominent living novelist and one of the country's leading public intellectuals. Since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, he has remained in Kyiv and published three volumes of war diaries (Diary of an Invasion, The Year of the Locust, and Three Years on Fire). Speaking to Jean-Emile Jammine, he describes what it means to be a writer living under the bombs.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Straits Times ☛ China’s clean tech exports jump as Iran war spurs demand

      Manufacturers are seeking alternative sources amid a shortage of traditional supplies.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Science Alert ☛ Disturbing Experiment Bolsters The Case Lobsters Feel Pain After All

      We need to do better.

    • Science Alert ☛ Up to 4% of People Can Hear Colors or Taste Words. Here's Why.

      We don’t all perceive the world in the same way.

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea's Lee to seek big boost in economic ties in summit with India's Modi

    South Korean President Lee Jae Myung heads into talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modimir in New Delhi on Monday, aiming for a big boost in economic cooperation, particularly in areas such as shipbuilding.

  • NYPost ☛ Retail apocalypse hits San Diego as huge player quits city over ‘declining conditions’ at mall

    The iPhone giant confirmed the closure as part of a broader decision to pull out of three mall locations nationwide, including sites in Connecticut and Maryland.

• Civil Rights / Policing / Accessibility

  • The Straits Times ☛ Wanted man in South Korea arrested after appearing on livestream

    The man in his 50s was on South Korea’s wanted list for distributing sexually explicit content.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • It's FOSS ☛ Won’t Somebody Think of the Children? Why Big Tech’s ‘Tobacco Moment’ Isn’t What It Seems

    As regulators rush to “protect children,” we risk creating something worse. A more centralized, identity-driven, and surveilled internet that strengthens Big Tech instead of challenging it.