Leftovers

• The Guardian UK ☛ The one change that worked: I struggled to get any work done – until I bought a kitchen timer

  A few months ago, when I decided to go freelance, I knew I needed to switch to a foolproof method. I’d known about the pomodoro technique for a while. Developed by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980s, it involves working in 25-minute intervals followed by a five-minute break. He named the method – pomodoro being Italian for tomato – after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer he used. Wanting to take ownership of my workflow, I bought the tomato timer that had been saved in my online shopping basket for a few years.

• Hindustan Times ☛ Sonny Rollins, last jazz 'colossus,' dead at 95

  The Harlem-born Rollins -- recognizable in his later years for a shock of white hair -- was one of a handful of saxophone players who defined the instrument, a pantheon that includes Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins and John Coltrane, with whom he had an affectionate but complicated relationship.

• Los Angeles Times ☛ Sonny Rollins, pioneering jazz saxophonist, dies at 95

  Rollins survived virtually all of his contemporaries from the 1950s and ’60s, the period in which the fundamental elements of the contemporary jazz that followed for the next half-century were established. Among his peers were musicians such as Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley and J.J. Johnson.

  His long, productive career encompassed more than six decades, in each of which his live performances and recordings continually attested to his preeminence as one of jazz history’s most vital, innovative and influential artists.

• France24 ☛ Sonny Rollins, towering jazz innovator known as 'Saxophone Colossus,' dies at 95

  He was dubbed the "Saxophone Colossus" after the title of his seminal 1956 album, in which he brought a new power to the instrument as he came to define hard bop -- a jazz that was intense and stripped back the genre's structural confines.

• Ruben Verweij ☛ Now, May 2026: a letter from Scotland!

  Some of the stickers James sent me are related to the IndieWeb. The microformats one I had to look up, to be honest. Prompted by this search, I’ve now added those to my website as well. As they also provide my name and profile picture to other websites (via an h-card), that leads me to the next point.

• Johnny Decimal ☛ 100 email list unsubscriptions is a good thing

  90 engaged people are far more interesting to me than 100 who just never bothered to click 'unsubscribe'.

• Bobby Hiltz ☛ Scratch, Dig, Blow

  This works both ways. I like using LibreOffice, I haven’t actively used Microsoft Office in nearly 20 years. If I announce this personal preference at work, I’m looked at like I have a toothbrush moustache.

  It goes beyond brands and products and can even be applied to people, like celebrities, and personal beliefs and opinions. My one year of Introductory Psychology taught me one thing: one year of psychology is just not enough. It was also before terms like “G. I. Joe fallacy” were coined and people mentioned cognitive biases in everyday conversation like they were talking about the weather.

• Science / Mathematics / Computer Science

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Megalibraries could reshape AI-driven materials discovery faster than self-driving labs

    This advance points toward a future where scientists can move beyond the traditionally slow trial-and-error approach to rapidly designing, synthesizing and testing materials with tailored properties. Just as importantly, the platform can generate the vast, high-quality datasets needed to train artificial intelligence (AI) systems to help discover the next generation of materials.

  • Philip Zucker ☛ Lifting E-Graphs

    The whole design is powered by intuition coming from a semantic model manipulating R^n -> R functions in a systematic way. I’m now calling what I previously called a Thinning e-graph https://www.philipzucker.com/thin_egraph/ a Lifting E-Graph, as the word lift is more evocative of what the main operation of interest does on R^n -> R functions.

  • Wired ☛ A Fundamental Principle of Aeronautical Engineering Has Been Overturned

    However, in 1989 Tani reinterpreted the experimental data on rough-surfaced pipes obtained by fluid engineer Johann Nikulase in the 1930s, suggesting that “roughness may not necessarily only promote turbulent transition and increase fluid resistance.” (In physics, air is considered a fluid.) Inheriting this idea, a research group led by Yasuaki Kohama of Tohoku University demonstrated in the 1990s that fibrous rough surfaces, which have fine fibrous irregularities on their surface, have the effect of delaying transition under certain conditions.

  • TruthOut ☛ Pope Leo Issues Encyclical Warning of AI’s Potential Dangers If Left Unregulated

    “As with every major technological shift, AI tends to amplify the power of those who already possess economic resources, expertise, and access to data,” Leo wrote in the document, titled Magnifica Humanitas. “In light of the common good and the universal destination of goods, this raises serious concerns, since small but highly influential groups can shape information and consumption patterns, influence democratic processes, and steer economic dynamics to their own advantage, undermining social justice and solidarity among peoples.”

  • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Pope urges world to hit brakes on AI

    Leo, the 14th pope to choose that name, cited centuries of prior papal teachings on social justice issues before addressing the ethics of AI systems.

    He specifically invoked his predecessor Leo XIII, who published a famed encyclical in 1891 that called for better pay and conditions for labourers during the Industrial Revolution.

    Leo XIV decried what he called “new forms of slavery” endured by people tending AI systems and factory workers who produce the technological devices, such as computers and smartphones, on which AI is used.

  • RTL ☛ 'Magnifica Humanitas': Pope urges 'disarming' of AI in major manifesto

    As early as 2020, the Holy See launched the "Rome Appeal for an AI Ethic", which called for new technologies to respect human dignity.

    Experts say "Magnifica Humanitas" could prove as influential as Pope Francis's "Laudato Si", a 2015 climate manifesto that triggered political and civic reactions worldwide.

• Career/Education

  • University of Michigan ☛ You don’t get much time here. Spend it with intent.

    It is easier to reflect on friends made, communities joined and accomplishments earned while looking in the rearview mirror. It is these small memories that aggregate into the communities and knowledge that feel like they’ve existed forever. But slowing down to appreciate each moment as it occurs is much more difficult.

• Hardware

  • CBC ☛ 2026-05-15 [Older] Zwilling Kettles recalled by Health Canada due to potential burn risk

  • Hackaday ☛ Peek Into IBM’s System/360 With Vintage Training Film

    The presenter talks about the transition from magnetic tape-based storage (in which data is stored and must be read sequentially) to DASD (direct access storage devices) which have more in common with modern mass storage media. The ability to access and process data at will instead of sequentially represented a tremendous opportunity to change how organizations handled data. System/360 redefined mainframe computing, introducing not just the concept of compatibility and interoperability of programs and data between systems, but also popularized the 8-bit byte.

  • Hackaday ☛ Through-Glass Vias And The Long Road To Glass Substrates

    Glass-based substrates are slowly beginning to push out organic substrates commonly used in PCBs due to often superior material properties. One area where glass substrates have however struggled is with through-hole vias and providing the conductive copper path through them. A 2024 article by [Keith Best] gives a good overview of the topic, with recent news showing how much companies like Intel are pushing for glass substrates, specifically for the packaging of dies.

  • Hackaday ☛ Lost Version Of Amiga Unix Suddenly Reappears

    It starts with an auction held for the 40 year anniversary of the Free Software Foundation where, by just one second, the highest bidder was too late. What do you do first with an artifact as valuable as an old FSF computer? You image the hard drive. Then you make several copies, including on different computers–after all, you wouldn’t want to lose the data on it. Preservation secured, the natural next thing is to boot it–and that’s when we see the magic 2.02c version number.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • CBC ☛ 2026-05-17 [Older] Court won't hear case against Kingston doctor ordered to pay back $600k for COVID vaccines

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-17 [Older] WHO declares international emergency over Ebola outbreak

  • Project Censored ☛ 2026-05-11 [Older] Public Largely Unaware of Third-Party External Review Process for Denied Healthcare Claims

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-17 [Older] Young Czechs drink less beer but risk other addictions

• Proprietary / SaaS

  • Russia’s Answer to Microsoft Office Plans Massive Layoffs After Billions in Losses

    Russian software developer MyOffice, which was promoted as a domestic replacement for Microsoft Office, is preparing large-scale staff cuts after reporting multibillion-ruble losses.

  • MyOffice, the Russian equivalent of Microsoft Office, is laying off employees en masse

    The Russian developer of the "MyOffice" office software suite—the company "New Cloud Technologies" (NCT)—has begun a large-scale round of layoffs, completely shutting down certain departments.

  • Haaretz ☛ Israeli Tech Firm Wix Plans Layoffs of 800–1,000 Employees Worldwide

    The company returned to a quarterly loss after ramping up spending to compete in AI and 'vibe coding,' while simultaneously draining $1.7 billion from its cash reserves for a massive stock buyback

  • Mashable ☛ Former Xbox President Sarah Bond breaks silence after surprise exit [Ed: So XBox as a console is dead]

    She pointed to Xbox’s growth in PC and cloud gaming, development of its next console, and efforts to create "a more open gaming platform that spans devices."

  • The Strategist ☛ After the Canvas breach, security takes centre stage for SaaS providers | The Strategist

    We’ve just seen a very real example of risks in sectoral dependency on SaaS platforms. A breach in the Canvas learning management system in the first week of May 2026 exposed student records and took systems offline, affecting 275 million users at more than 8,800 institutions. Affected organisations in Australia included the Queensland Department of Education and top-tier universities such as the Australian National University, the University of Melbourne and the University of Technology Sydney. Learning and assessments were disrupted for several days until Canvas’s parent company, Instructure, said it had reached an agreement with the attackers to have the data destroyed. This has been widely assumed to mean that the company paid a ransom.

  • Max Seelemann ☛ SwiftUI should become Open-Source

    We have a running joke on the team. Whenever we’re fed up fighting a framework and can’t find workarounds, someone proposes sending one of us as an undercover intern to that framework’s team at Apple, to fix the bugs from within. Over the years this has targeted many things… iCloud, TextKit, UniversalTypeIdentifiers. Most recently, though, the jokes have mostly been about fixing SwiftUI.

  • [Old] Bogdan Buduroiu ☛ It took me almost a year to exit Apple's Walled Garden

    And here’s where the problem begins. Despite Apple trying to convince us that Macs really are the tool for the creator, I recently felt that Apple products have become yet another portal to endless consumption, rather than experimentation, and a way to lock down compute behind proprietary code and opaque interfaces.

    Instead of encouraging tinkering, I found these devices to be more of a vehicle to drive slop into your eyeballs.

  • So-Called 'Artificial Intelligence' ('AI') / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • CBC ☛ 2026-05-13 [Older] AI transcriber for use by Ontario doctors 'hallucinated,' generated errors, auditor finds

    • Project Censored ☛ 2026-05-13 [Older] US Government Plans AI-Driven Production of Mass Propaganda

    • Ben Werdmuller ☛ The Pope used his first encyclical to warn about tech centralization

      "When such power is concentrated in the hands of a few, it tends to become opaque and evade public oversight, [giving] rise to new dependencies, exclusions, manipulations and inequalities."

    • The Verge ☛ Pope Leo warns of the risks of AI in major papal document

      In his papal encyclical — a kind of open letter from the Catholic Church — Pope Leo stressed the economic and social upheaval that rapid AI adoption is creating, with inadequate protections for individuals that threaten human dignity. He compared the current era of AI to the Tower of Babel, saying society must “avoid the ‘Babel syndrome,’” which he defines as “the idolatry of profit that sacrifices the weak, a uniformity that neutralizes differences, and the pretense that a single language — even a digital one — can translate everything, including the mystery of the person, into data and performance.”

    • Silicon Angle ☛ Pope Leo XIV highlights AI risks in first encyclical

      The approximately 43,000-word document is entitled “Magnifica Humanitas,” which is Latin for “Magnificent Humanity.” One of its five core chapters is dedicated entirely to technology’s impact on humanity. The lengthy section places particular emphasis on AI.

    • India Times ☛ Pope calls for robust regulation of AI in manifesto that ponders the future of humanity

      In the text, Leo denounced the "culture of power" driving the AI race, especially in developing ever more sophisticated methods of remote warfare. He declared that it was "not permissible" to entrust irreversible, lethal decisions to AI systems, setting up another flash point between the American pope and the Trump administration, which has worked aggressively to deregulate AI development.

    • India Times ☛ Hit or flop? AI slop is here to stay

      These episodes triggered debate over so-called ‘AI slop’—low-cost videos made with generative AI designed to maximise clicks and watch time. But they also revealed something more significant: audiences are increasingly consuming AI content, often without realising it.

    • Naz Hamid ☛ Craft Is Not Culture

      I nodded to myself. A while ago, craft and taste were bandied about as untouchable and unreplicable. But there is bad craft and terrible taste. There’s no accounting for it. LLMs are in the cosplaying stage, approximating what’s popular and what’s in the zeitgeist. Aesthetic alone was never a defense. It’s always been easy to copy, mimic, and rip-off design.

    • Greg Morris ☛ Agents Everywhere, Apparently

      So where exactly are all these replaced jobs going to come from, when the tool that's supposed to be doing the replacing can't reliably finish what you asked it to do without a person sat next to it checking the output?

    • Daniel Miller ☛ The Output of Belonging

      The above two posts were back-to-back in my feed reader this morning and felt linked, one about “solidarity in this broad, moral, philosophical, and theological sense” and the other about the very practical problem with allowing our work to be enclosed and captured by large language models.

      This does seem to be in the zeitgeist.

    • Ava ☛ concerning law enforcement exemptions in the draft AI act transparency guidelines

      I've finished reading the Draft Guidelines for transparency requirement under the AI Act that are out for comment until the 3rd of June, and a variety of exemptions for law enforcement and similar actors greatly concern me. I haven't seen media pick this up in any meaningful way, but this should be highlighted and discussed.

      A short explanation upfront: [...]

    • Paolo Scanferla ☛ The User Is Visibly Frustrated

      The first time you catch a mistake, you shrug. You point it out and the agent apologizes. Five minutes later, however, same mistake again. You correct them a second time, noting their recidivism, so now they also update their memory and promise you “it will never happen again”. But it does, over and over, because these tools follow the most probable path, and in some cases no amount of HARD RULES can push them off it.

      If the agent were a human colleague, you’d have good reason to feel a bit miffed. But it’s an algorithm; losing your patience is absurd. And yet, since it behaves like a colleague, the illusion ends up tripping the same emotional wires.

    • Vatican News ☛ Pope Leo’s ‘Magnifica humanitas’: AI must serve humanity not concentrate power

      Marking the 135th anniversary of Rerum novarum, Pope Leo XIV releases his first encyclical, entitled ‘Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.’ He appeals for the safeguarding of humanity, promotion of truth, dignity of work, social justice, and peace.

    • National Catholic Register ☛ Full Text of ‘Magnifica Humanitas’: Read Pope Leo XIV’s First Encyclical| National Catholic Register

      The encyclical develops the Churchʼs social teaching in light of artificial intelligence, situating new questions of human dignity, labor, and the common good within the tradition that runs from Rerum Novarum through Centesimus Annus and Laudato Si'.

    • Vatican News ☛ Pope Leo presents 'Magnifica humanitas’ calling for disarmament of AI

      Pope Leo XIV presents "Magnifica Humanitas" as the Church’s response to the challenges posed by artificial intelligence, calling for AI to be “disarmed” from logics of domination, exclusion and war. Drawing parallels with Rerum Novarum, the Pope urges the global community to place technological progress at the service of human dignity, solidarity and the common good.

    • The Vatican ☛ Encyclical Letter of His Holiness Leo XIV Magnifica Humanitas (15 May 2026)

      5. It now falls to us to face the challenges of our time with clarity of thought and responsibility. It is necessary to establish adequate regulatory tools capable of upholding justice and curbing the distorting effects of technological power. Nevertheless, the issue is not limited to regulation. As Pope Francis warned, we must realistically ask ourselves who holds this power today and how they use it: “It must also be recognized that nuclear energy, biotechnology, information technology, knowledge of our own DNA, and many other abilities which we have acquired… have given those with the knowledge, and especially the economic resources to use them, an impressive dominance over the whole of humanity and the entire world.” [7] In the past, it was largely up to the State to guide and direct innovation. Today, however, the main drivers of development are private, often transnational, parties that are endowed with resources and the capacity to intervene that surpass those of many Governments. Technological power thus takes on an unprecedented, predominantly “private” aspect, which makes it even more challenging to discern, govern and direct such power toward the common good.

      6. For this reason it is necessary to begin a shared discernment process for identifying the spiritual and cultural roots of ongoing transformations. If we focus only on contingencies, we risk letting the succession of emergencies dictate the direction of our path. We are living through a rapid phase of transition, a “change of era,” in which — while some are vying for the future of new technologies and others dedicate themselves to reflecting on the matter — most people are watching and waiting, observing from afar and merely hoping for the best. For this very reason, crucial questions impose themselves on our conscience and can no longer be avoided: Where are we going? Toward what goal do we wish to orient ourselves? What direction should we choose as a people and as a human community?

    • The Vatican ☛ Presentation and promulgation of the Encyclical Letter “Magnifica humanitas” (25 May 2026)

      Magnifica Humanitas was born from listening like Leo XIII did. I have listened to scientists and engineers who work with sincere enthusiasm on technologies capable of alleviating immense suffering; to political leaders and public officials who have perseveringly sought just rules; to parents and teachers who are deeply concerned for the future of younger generations.

      Other, very troubling voices have also reached me about increasingly autonomous weapons systems practically beyond any human reach to govern them effectively. I hear very troubling accounts of algorithms that can block access to healthcare, employment and security on the basis of data tainted by prejudice and injustice. And I have heard the silence of those who have no voice when decisions are made—decisions likely to generate new forms of exclusion and suffering.

      From this listening matured a disturbing conviction expressed in Magnifica Humanitas: artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed. The word is strong, I know, but deliberately chosen because this moment needs words capable of attracting attention, awakening consciences and indicating paths forward for humanity.

    • Los Angeles Times ☛ Pope calls for AI regulation, using technology for common good rather than profit

      In the text, Leo denounced the “culture of power” driving the AI race, especially in developing ever more sophisticated methods of remote warfare. He declared that it was “not permissible” to entrust irreversible, lethal decisions to AI systems, setting up another flash point between the American pope and the Trump administration, which has worked aggressively to deregulate AI development. Advertisement

      “Artificial intelligence now demands to be disarmed, freed from logics that turn it into an instrument of domination, exclusion and death,″ the pope told a special Vatican presentation of the encyclical, one of the most authoritative types of teaching documents a pope can issue.

    • NPR ☛ This big university system is embracing AI. Students and faculty aren't all on board

      The survey did not ask whether students, faculty and staff agreed with the system's decision to spend millions on a contract with OpenAI.

      Among the survey's topline findings: [...]

    • TMZ ☛ Pope Leo Warns Artificial Intelligence Could Threaten Humanity

      The Pope has repeatedly described A.I. as one of the biggest threats facing humanity and this latest warning makes it clear he wants governments and tech companies to slow things down before they spiral too far.

    • Vox ☛ Why Pope Leo XIV is speaking up about artificial intelligence and humanity

      Encyclicals are official teaching documents of the Catholic Church: letters issued by popes to bishops after consultation with theologians, historians, and experts on pressing matters that affect humanity or the church, with the expectation that all people, faithful or secular, can learn from them and help shape their consciences and lives. Magnifica humanitas is Leo’s first encyclical since becoming pope last year, and its release now underscores the focus the new pope is putting on AI and technology. Notably, Leo also used the occasion to make a historic formal apology for the Church’s previous defense and justification of slavery — a reminder that the Catholic Church has not always been on the right side of social ills.

  • Social Control Media

    • Project Censored ☛ 2026-05-11 [Older] Midterms Heighten Need for Social Media Regulation

  • Windows TCO / Windows Bot Nets

    • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ DDoS attacks expose South Africa's cyber response gap

      A wave of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks earlier this week disrupted connectivity across more than half a dozen South African hosting providers and internet specialists, including 1-grid, Xneelo, Network Platforms, Host Africa and Domains.co.za. Tens of thousands of businesses were affected downstream, while upstream effects disrupted connectivity via the Seacom undersea cable.

    • Krebs On Security ☛ Netherlands Seizes 800 Servers, Arrests 2 for Aiding Cyberattacks

      The Dutch investigation focuses on Stark Industries, a sprawling hosting provider that materialized just two weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine. As detailed in this May 2024 deep-dive, Stark quickly became the source of massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against European targets, and emerged as a top supplier of proxy and anonymity services that showed up time and again in cyberattacks linked to Russia-backed hacking groups.

• Security

  • Information Security Media Group, Corporation ☛ 2026-05-11 [Older] The Gentlemen Ransomware Group Becomes a Victim

  • The Record ☛ 2026-05-14 [Older] Alleged Dream Market admin arrested in Germany

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Project Censored ☛ 2026-05-12 [Older] Bulgarian Hackers Use Trending AI Site to Conduct Phishing Scam

    • Google ☛ 2026-05-16 [Older] Welcome to BlackFile: Inside a Vishing Extortion Operation

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • The Walrus ☛ Trump Wants to Tap Your Phone. Ottawa Might Let Him

      Its scope could mean requiring companies to install spy tools into mobile devices, social media and messaging apps, cloud-storage services, video game platforms, smart home devices, live video camera networks, or health and fitness trackers—to name a few examples. The bill would also dilute privacy protections for other digital information, like the identity information behind anonymous social media accounts or IP addresses (often referred to as subscriber information).

    • Semafor Inc ☛ Thousands of journalists’ data exposed to dark web

      Swiss privacy and security company Proton and Constella Intelligence found more than 116,000 instances where employees at The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post had their data exposed to the dark web.

    • Citizen Lab ☛ Trump Wants to Tap Your Phone. Ottawa Might Let Him.

      Although surveillance law reform has been a top issue for the U.S. in trade negotiations, the Canadian government has not provided an explanation about why the U.S. is pressuring Canada to pass these reforms. “In the absence of public transparency,” Robertson writes, “observers are left to read between the lines.”

    • PC World ☛ Sick of AI Overviews? The old Google is still hiding in plain sight

      Be aware that any proxy site like this could potentially read all of your search queries; however there is currently no indication that udm14.com is doing this. If you don’t trust proxy sites, then you have another option. You can just manually add “&udm=14” to the end of a Google search URL and get the same effect directly through Google itself.

    • Nick Heer ☛ FTC Settles With Cox Media Group and Two Others Who Lied About Using Device Microphones to Collect Ad Targeting Data

      Congratulations to Joseph Cox of 404 Media who broke this story in December 2023 and a related story about MindSift and 1010 Digital, the “smaller marketing firms” who settled with the FTC. According to the FTC’s complaint (PDF), Cox Media Group continued its fraudulent marketing through mid-2024, around the time the pitch deck was leaked to Cox. All three of these companies helped to feed the conspiracy theory that apps use device microphones to collect data for ad targeting.

    • Reuters ☛ Cox Media fined for claiming it used AI to track consumer conversations

      The company falsely told potential ​advertisers in 2023 that it used artificial ⁠intelligence and voice-processing technology to "identify buyers based ​on casual conversations in real time," the FTC ​said.

    • Herman Groenbroek ☛ The Future of Advertising is in Personalized Website Layouts · Greenpants Blog

      We already see advertisers try to optimize for user preference via social media algorithms that flawlessly predict which videos to show next to get you hooked.

    • CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: No honor among (ad-tech) thieves (25 May 2026)

      It shouldn't come as a surprise to learn that a company that uses dishonest tactics to spy on you for profit will also use dishonest tactics to sell the resulting surveillance data.

      The only reason this wouldn't be obvious is if you've fallen into the trap of thinking "if you're not paying for the product, you're the product." Companies that cheat when the opportunity arises will cheat everyone: customers, users, regulators, suppliers and employees. You're the product if the company can get away with making you the product: [...]

    • TechCrunch ☛ Trump Mobile confirms it exposed customers' personal data, including phone numbers and home addresses

      Trump Mobile confirms it exposed customers’ personal data, including phone numbers and home addresses

      Phone provider Trump Mobile has confirmed that it was exposing customers’ names, email addresses, mailing addresses, cell numbers, and order identifiers to the open [Internet].

    • Project Censored ☛ 2026-05-11 [Older] Investigation Reveals ICE Surveillance of School Cameras

    • Make Use Of ☛ I replaced Google Drive with something most people never try [Ed: Giving one's files to Russia]

      Ever since quietly dropping the “don’t be evil” company motto, I haven’t really been a huge fan of Google. Somewhere around 2022, I actually decided to drop the platform altogether. With Google Drive, I wasn’t really trying to make some anti-Google statement by looking for an alternative. I was just tired of treating it like a dumping ground for every document, backup folder, screenshot, and shared file out of habit.

      [...]

      The biggest win, of course, was Linux. My Linux laptop is my main machine, and unbelievably, Google Drive still doesn’t have an official Linux sync client. OneDrive is also in the same position. Sure, you can use third-party tools. But paying for storage and then having to rely on dubious external software feels like a workaround when I just want native support.

    • HowTo Geek ☛ Stop blindly trusting your VPN: 8 ways it exposes everything you do online

      Your VPN is probably leaking information without you knowing. From the domain names you visit to your real identity, if you use a VPN for privacy, you're going to want to read this one.

      Many people rely on VPNs for privacy, but most are unaware they often leak your DNS requests and don't protect you from identification. Your browser is outside the control of your VPN, and it has a unique fingerprint. When cross-referenced with your login sessions, trackers profile your real identity across the web. That's not to mention a tiny snippet of JavaScript on any website can unmask your real IP address. I'll explain how and what you can do about it.

  • Confidentiality

    • 2026-05-15 [Older] UK: Hospital workers inappropriately accessed details of Southport victims, investigation finds

    • 2026-05-15 [Older] No need to hack when it’s leaking: Dalbir Singh & Associates law firm edition

    • The Register UK ☛ 2026-05-12 [Older] US bank reports itself for revealing customer data to unauthorized AI application

    • Michigan Nurse Convicted in $1.6M Medicare Fraud Scheme Using Stolen Patient Records

      A federal jury in the Eastern District of Michigan convicted a Michigan nurse and home health care agency owner yesterday for operating a $1.6 million scheme to defraud Medicare.

      Court documents say that Ruby Scott, 55, of Farmington Hills, Michigan, owned and operated Delta Home Health Care LLC. From 2018 through 2021, Scott bribed a discharge nurse at a Detroit hospital to identify Medicare patients and fax their confidential records to Delta, unbeknownst to the patients.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Project Censored ☛ 2026-05-12 [Older] FAA Moves to Criminalize Use of Drones to Track ICE

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-16 [Older] Middle East: Drone strike sparks fire at UAE nuclear plant

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-16 [Older] Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga dies in custody

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-15 [Older] US stops Poland troop deployment after Germany pullout order

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-14 [Older] Angela Merkel rejects 'male-killing' label as 'absurd'

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-15 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini says no change in Taiwan policy as China visit wraps

  • Federal News Network ☛ Oldest Pearl Harbor survivor is keeping the memory of the surprise bombing alive at 106

    Freeman Johnson, who turned 106 in March, never witnessed the surprise attack. He never heard his shipmates firing anti-aircraft guns at the attacking planes — shooting down a torpedo plane. By the time he was topside, the St. Louis, a light cruiser, had evaded midget submarines and safely set out to sea.

  • New Yorker ☛ Why Any Plausible Iran Deal Is a Humiliation for Trump

    Even as the U.S. claims to be nearing an agreement to end the conflict, Tehran’s ability to close the Strait of Hormuz and hold the global economy hostage has reinforced the power of regime hard-liners.

  • Paul Krugman ☛ Donald Trump’s Ego-Driven “Excursion” Has Crashed Into Reality

    “Many questions, few details in latest Iran peace proposal,” read the headline on a New York Times report Sunday. As the subhead explained, “It is too early to tell what exactly Trump and Iran have agreed to, or if they have agreed to much at all.” The article, by the way, was written by David Sanger, who Trump called “treasonous” over his clearly accurate reporting on how badly the war was going.

    But, in fact, Trump’s Iran war may be over, or virtually over. America lost.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • International Business Times ☛ 'Not Going Out Quietly': Rep. Thomas Massie Vows to Reveal Epstein Network Names Before Leaving Congress

    Rep Thomas Massie has vowed to publicly name more high-profile figures from the Jeffrey Epstein network before he leaves Congress at the end of this year. The Kentucky Republican lost his re-election primary on 19 May to Ed Gallrein, a candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump.

    Speaking on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, Massie made it clear he intended to use his remaining time in office to demand greater accountability over the Epstein files. With his congressional term due to end in January 2027, the congressman said he would not shy away from further disclosures.

• Environment

  • [Old] Ann Arbor District Library ☛ History of the Pall-Gelman Dioxane Groundwater Contamination Cleanup

    Millions of gallons of tainted groundwater have been extracted, treated, and re-injected into the ground. Dozens of test wells have been drilled in an attempt to track the spread of the contamination. The major concern, even still in 2016, is whether the underground plume will eventually migrate into Barton Pond on the Huron River, the major supplier of water for Ann Arbor.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-14 [Older] China goes electric, but can it get off coal?

    • CBC ☛ 2026-05-16 [Older] $1.5B battery separator plant in Port Colborne, Ont., to proceed despite Honda Canada suspending EV plans

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-17 [Older] Germany and Japan test hydrogen future with BMW, Toyota cars

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-16 [Older] Germany gets ahead in the new space race

    • Yle ☛ Finland-Sweden rail link set to open in August

      "Citizens and companies from both sides of the border have been waiting for this almost for 40 years," noted Ranne, who grew up in Haparanda.

      State railways VR is to re-start the service into Sweden, which it discontinued in 1992.

    • Jan-Lukas Else ☛ Why it’s totally ok that I quit my bikepacking trip

      In the end, I spontaneously booked a hotel in Göttingen, since there were no available hotels or vacation rentals nearby. To Göttingen I took the train, to later decide how to continue. But I didn’t continue; instead, after a good breakfast, I took the train home the next morning.

    • BBC ☛ EasyJet flight diverts to Rome over power bank in luggage

      The International Civil Aviation Organisation, a UN agency, introduced new restrictions for power banks in March.

    • The Independent UK ☛ EasyJet London flight forced to divert to Rome after power bank charging in passenger’s luggage

      Glenn Bradley, the head of flight operations at the Civil Aviation Authority, previously waned: “Lithium batteries power everything from vapes and mobile phones to cameras and power banks. If they become faulty or damaged, they can cause an intense fire that is difficult to extinguish, both in the cabin or the hold of an aircraft.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • CBC ☛ 2026-05-15 [Older] Wildfire in Alberta's west country rages on, campers evacuated from backcountry

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-16 [Older] Germany news: Dead humpback whale off Denmark is 'Timmy,' who spent weeks stranded in Baltic Sea

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-17 [Older] Dead humpback whale off Denmark is 'Timmy'

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-16 [Older] Australia: Man dies after shark attack off holiday island

    • CBC ☛ 2026-05-17 [Older] This blind Yukon birder learned to use his ears — now hearing loss means every spring is quieter

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-17 [Older] Tiger escapes enclosure near Leipzig, one person injured

    • Project Censored ☛ 2026-05-13 [Older] Military Expansion Threatens Pacific’s Coral Reefs

    • Science Alert ☛ Tiny Blue Octopus Unlike Any We Know of Discovered Near The Galapagos

      On the ocean floor near the Galapagos Islands, a submersible controlled by scientists came across a mysterious octopus as blue as the ocean and no bigger than a golf ball.

  • Overpopulation

    • Eesti Rahvusringhääling ☛ Average age of first-time mothers in Estonia rises above 30

      Between 1992 and 2025, the average age of first-time mothers increased by seven years, and the average age of women giving birth to their second child rose by five years.

• Finance

  • Jeff Kaufman ☛ Donating 80% While It Still Counts

    Julia and I had been giving half since 2014, but in 2025 we drew on our savings to donate 81%. It looks to us like we're in a critical window for keeping the introduction of very powerful AI systems from being disastrous, and we want to do what we can while we still can.

    Here's what that looks like in the context of our overall spending: [...]

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2026-05-17 [Older] Mark Carney’s Trickle-Down Nation-Building

  • CBC ☛ 2026-05-13 [Older] Are Canadians reaching their 'breaking point'? New data shows more people filing for insolvency

  • CBC ☛ 2026-05-15 [Older] Does Canada have a personal bankruptcy problem? | About That

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-15 [Older] SEC settles lawsuit against Indian billionaire Adani

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-15 [Older] India hikes petrol, diesel prices as economic woes from Iran war mount

  • Breach Media ☛ 2026-05-14 [Older] By hosting a global weapons bank, Carney is setting up Canada for war profiteering

  • CBC ☛ 2026-05-15 [Older] How much damage have Canada's booze bans done to the U.S. wine industry?

  • CBC ☛ 2026-05-18 [Older] Manitoba selling off shelved U.S. booze that's set to expire in fall

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-18 [Older] Spain acquits Shakira of tax fraud

  • CBC ☛ 2026-05-18 [Older] U.S. slaps tariffs on fresh Canadian mushrooms, claims growers getting unfair subsidies

  • CBC ☛ 2026-05-18 [Older] Thinking of renting out your home short-term for World Cup? Experts say the extra cash isn't always worth it

  • CBC ☛ 2026-05-16 [Older] Multimillionaire Vancouver developer jailed for ignoring court orders

  • The Register UK ☛ Samsung memory workers call off strike and may score six-figure bonuses

    Workers at Samsung Electronics may score bonuses of well over $100,000 after calling off a planned strike.

    Samsung’s profits recently shot into the stratosphere along with the price of memory and solid-state storage. Staff threatened to strike if the company did not share some of the largesse.

    Last-minute talks saw the National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) agree not to strike, after Samsung agreed to create a fund that will share profits with workers. A Bloomberg report suggests some workers could be in line for payments of $340,000 under the scheme.

    The Union is now running a vote on whether to approve the plan.

    Workers appear to have mixed feelings about the plan, as on Sunday the Union published a post in which it tries to justify the settlement as benefiting workers from all divisions of Samsung Electronics, and its plan to create a fund that would see all employees granted around $17,000.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Robert Bryce ☛ Pope Leo: AI “Must Be Disarmed”

    Ted Gioia is a very successful writer on Substack. He has 290,000 subscribers and is ranked number one in the music category. While I dig his music writing, his cultural analysis may be even better. Last December, Gioia spotlighted the anger toward Big Tech and AI and predicted that the “Tech backlash might just be the biggest issue of 2026.” He continued, saying that in the past, Big Tech “simply ignored critics” and instead focused on lobbying politicians. “That’s unlikely to work in this supercharged environment. Sooner or later, the tech power brokers will need to engage with their critics.”

    Gioia’s prediction was spot on.

  • Medium ☛ On Ideological (And Technological) Purity | by Joan Westenberg | Westenberg | Medium

    If my domain name is still hosted by GoDaddy, is that a violation of my morals? If I read a Substack newsletter, am I complicit? If I search on Google, am I part of the problem? Can I still use DuckDuckGo, or is any American…

  • Dayvi Schuster ☛ Why Bun leaving Zig is Great for Zig

    The tech internet is reacting exactly how you would expect to the news that Bun has merged a near-total rewrite from Zig into Rust. Most of the Rust crowd is out in full force celebrating it as another big win for their side. They are already writing off Zig as some niche language that is not built for the future.

    They are missing the point.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Counter Punch ☛ 2026-05-15 [Older] Can We Still Laugh Together? Political Cartoons and Censorship

  • Coyote ☛ A Superficial Aesthetic of Moderation

    An aesthetic of polite, genteel, nonthreatening moderation is nothing more than an aesthetic. It can at times be paired with very superficial assertions, and while superficial assertions are not inherently a bad thing, they should not be treated as categorically exempt from scrutiny just because of their tone. There is an important distinction to be made between due caution and premature concession. So, in a nutshell:

    Beware the treachery of vibes.

  • [Old] Wiley ☛ The Digital Memory Hole: Distortion and Accountability in the Age of New Media

    Physical forms of media are increasingly being phased out and replaced by digital media. While this transition entails significant gains for consumers, it also presents risks that are worthy of attention and analysis. Thanks to the rise of channels of distribution such as streaming platforms, it is increasingly the case that content that has previously been made available in the marketplace can be disappeared or covertly edited in the absence of any significant scrutiny, criticism, or feedback. This paper presents two arguments regarding why this pattern of behavior may prove pernicious. The first argument posits that removing and revising culturally significant works is likely to distort people's understanding of the past, which has the potential to generate patterns of thinking and behavior that are corrosive for society. The second argument makes the case that the practice of removing and revising published content at will is damaging to the project of achieving accountability in the media marketplace. In light of these arguments, it is noted that there are alternative strategies for grappling with the existence of controversial pieces of media that are additive rather than subtractive, and do not pose a risk of generating distortion or undermining accountability.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-18 [Older] Zambia's media freedom under scrutiny ahead of 2026 elections

  • Project Censored ☛ 2026-05-18 [Older] Framing Atrocity: Photojournalism and Press Freedom

  • Project Censored ☛ 2026-05-11 [Older] ICE Black Sites and Press Freedom Decline

• Civil Rights / Policing / Accessibility

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-16 [Older] US: New York's Long Island railway workers go on strike

  • Marisa Kabas ☛ Kat Abughazaleh shows us how to fight fascists

    The case was already on the decline, with prosecutors dropping the felony charges against the remaining four in April as questions about the grand jury transcripts popped up. They still faced a full trial on misdemeanor charges and up to one year in jail. But Judge Perry ruled the DOJ’s handling of the grand jury and subsequent redactions constituted grave misconduct, making it impossible to move forward.

    I spoke with Abughazaleh by phone Friday morning about right wing fuckery, ridiculous rumors, and how she plans to reclaim her life after the federal government tried to destroy it. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-16 [Older] Study: Immigrants disadvantaged in German housing market

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-17 [Older] Germany news: UNICEF says child well-being ranking 'alarming'

  • Project Censored ☛ 2026-05-18 [Older] Record 83.4 Million People Internally Displaced in 2024

  • Project Censored ☛ 2026-05-13 [Older] Stephen Miller Owned Up to $250,000 in Palantir Stock at Time of ICE Contract

• Monopolies/Monopsonies

  • Digital Music News ☛ Ticketmaster Creates a ‘Climate of Fear,’ British Lawmakers Say

    “What particularly alarmed the committee was not just the scale of Live Nation’s market position across promotion, venues, and ticketing, but the climate of fear we encountered during this inquiry,” said Committee Chair Liam Byrne. “A striking number of submissions requested anonymity because people were worried about the consequences of speaking openly. That alone raises profound questions about the health of competition in the market.” A group of 30-plus U.S. state attorneys general would likely agree. It was their concern that Live Nation-Ticketmaster had been operating an illegal monopoly that led to pursuing the case against them after the federal government suddenly reached a settlement. This ultimately led to a jury finding that the companies had acted against United States antitrust law.

  • UK ☛ Competition and market functioning in the UK live music industry

    The Committee has concluded that for Live Nation, and possibly wider in the live music industry, there are concerns against all three of the CMA factors for determining market dominance. We therefore recommend that the CMA undertake a full market investigation into the live music industry as a priority. Anything less than a market investigation would be insufficient to fully understand the extent of alleged competition harms. The Committee recommends that the investigation is launched before the end of 2026.

    Concerns that our inquiry has raised include the following: [...]

  • Silicon Angle ☛ EU reportedly plans to fine Google over search practices

    Last year, the EU tentatively found that the company had breached the DMA with its search engine. Regulators believe that the company displayed first party services such as Google Shopping more prominently in search results than competing third-party websites.

    The EU also took issue with some of the Alphabet Inc. unit’s design choices. According to the European Commission, the design of interface sections such as Google News’ sports scores page gave the company an unfair edge over rivals. The page contains filters that aren’t available for a standard search result.

  • Reuters ☛ EU plans to fine Google high triple-digit million euro sum, Handelsblatt reports

    The investigation, which was officially launched in ​March 2025, relates to concerns that Google favours its own services in search results and seeks to ensure the world's most popular internet search ​engine complies with local regulation. The Commission is more interested in securing compliance ​rather than imposing penalties, spokesperson Thomas Regnier said in an emailed statement.

  • Copyrights

    • Project Censored ☛ 2026-05-18 [Older] Massive AI Podcasting Network Reusing Original News Content [Ed: Plagiarism]

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-05-15 [Older] 'FIFA got greedy' ― Why football fans in India may not be able to watch World Cup games on TV this year