Leftovers

• Science / Mathematics / Computer Science

  • Futurism ☛ Scientists Forced to Go on OnlyFans After Their Funding Was Cut

    Gotta fund your research somehow.

  • Science Alert ☛ The Sun Contains More Silver Than Previously Estimated

    This makes more sense.

  • Science Alert ☛ The Strange Origin of The Human Eye May Trace Back to a 600-Million-Year-Old 'Cyclops'

    The eyes have it.

  • Science Alert ☛ This Death Valley Plant Survives 60°C by Chilling Its Own Leaves

    A vital survival skill in a warming world.

  • Science Alert ☛ New Evidence That Microplastics Can Cross Placental Barrier And Alter Hormone Production

    How far does it go?

  • Science Alert ☛ Your 3am Wake-Ups Might Have an Ancient Scientific Explanation

    You're not alone.

  • Science Alert ☛ 'Most Isolated Environments': Microplastics Are Finding Their Way Down to Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents

    There's really no escape.

  • Science Alert ☛ This Week in Science: Dyson Spheres, Hidden Amazon Structures, And More

    Our weekly science news roundup.

• Hardware

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Lost one-of-a-kind Nintendo DS cartridge hits eBay for $9,100 — PokePark Fishing Contest designed to delete itself after 12 hours, game so rare it was only distributed to theme park attendees in 2005

    A Nintendo DS game that was classified as ‘lost media’ for nearly two decades is now within tantalizing reach of video gaming fans and archivists.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ 97 untouched Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros. cartridges worth thousands discovered in retro shop storage room — never-before-seen version of popular NES games include five perfect 10 PSA items

    A retro gaming shop in Wisconsin finds a box of unopened, never-before-seen versions of Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros. in its storage room. These items are probably worth four to five digits, and the first three carts are going up for auction starting August 12.

  • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

    • University of Toronto ☛ Some reasons why my phone's alarm clock is so good

      The simple, obvious, and more or less wrong answer is because my phone is a computer. This is more or less wrong because these days almost everything is a computer, or at least has a general purpose computer inside it; your flashlight might be a computer (and perhaps runs an open source flashlight OS), for example. This has happened because using a tiny cheap computer is often the simplest, cheapest, and fastest way to implement features (rather than designing a bespoke electronic circuit). So a physical, dedicated alarm clock could certainly be a computer and some of them probably are.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Futurism ☛ The Diarrhea Lettuce Company Has Been Linked to Forced Labor

    Horrifying.

  • New York Times ☛ The Silicon Valley Health Trend Making Doctors Nervous

    Is more data about your body actually good for you?

  • Science Alert ☛ Autism Diagnoses Spiked After COVID-19, But Probably Not For The Reason You Think

    "A significant sex disparity."

• Proprietary / SaaS

  • Ruben Schade ☛ The myth of Snow Leopard

    Snow Leopard was a version of Mac OS X released in 2010. It was billed by Fashion Company Apple as having “0 new features”, with a focus on refining the system, improving efficiency, and fixing bugs. Those of us using Macs at the time welcomed the news after living with updates that seemingly broke as many things as they introduced with each release.

    This idea is so powerful—and so longed for—that it’s escaped containment among the Fashion Company Apple crowd. I’ve seen everything from GNU/Linux distro to phone updates referred to as Snow Leopard releases, when their vendors cite stability and bug fixes over new features. Likewise, people plead with their vendors for a Snow Leopard release when they feel quality has slipped.

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

    • France24 ☛ AI safety concerns grow as models go rogue

      New concerns are being raised about the dangers of artificial intelligence, after both Anthropic and Proprietary Chaffbot Company reported that their Hey Hi (AI) models went on rogue hacking sprees this week. The disclosures come as Proprietary Chaffbot Company surpassed one billion active users on Friday, less than four years after the launch of ChatGPT. Charlotte Lam has more.

    • AI has two price tags in IT Work — One in Dollars, One in Skill

      Uber burned its 2026 Hey Hi (AI) budget by April. The token bill is the meter you can see — the one eroding your debugging skill doesn't send an invoice. Both matter.

    • Futurism ☛ A PR Firm Is Using Fake Publicists With AI-Generated Headshots to Spam Journalists With Pitches for Its Clients

      Why am I getting emails from fake PR reps with AI-generated faces?

    • Futurism ☛ Employees Long for the Days Before the Workplace Filled Up With Hey Hi (AI) Slop

      Those were the days.

    • Futurism ☛ A Prominent Hey Hi (AI) Investor Is Now Crumbling, in What Could Be a Sign of Things to Come

      Careful who you trust your billions of dollars with.

    • Futurism ☛ The More People Learn About AI, the More They Want It Out of Their Lives

      "I hear people champion Hey Hi (AI) and I'm like, 'sure, why don't we all participate in our collective downfall?'"

    • Futurism ☛ OpenAI’s Escaped Models Were Allegedly Rampaging More Extensively Than Previously Reported

      Is Proprietary Chaffbot Company trying to spin us a yarn?

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Zimbabwe ☛ The Diary That Talks Back: Who’s Really Listening When You Talk to AI?

      Across Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa, a quiet transfer of power is happening, not through trade deals or treaties, but through millions of ordinary conversations. Every day, young people confide in Hey Hi (AI) chatbots about their finances, their health, their relationships, their fears, sometimes their exact location and daily routines.

    • Kev Quirk ☛ 📝 2026-08-01 13:46: Signed up for a Vinted account.

      Signed up for a Vinted account. My options to "secure my account" were adding a phone number, or to logout.

      I fucking hate this side of the internet. Scumbags.

    • New York Times ☛ Teen Hikers Rescued 12 Hours Into Surveillance Giant Google Maps Hike

      The three teenage boys estimated their hike time would be over five hours on a rugged trail in British Columbia, Canada. A helicopter crew had to retrieve them.

    • Futurism ☛ Flock Surveillance Cameras Are Actually Horrible for Fighting Crime, FBI Data Shows

      "The public has been asked to accept a significant expansion of surveillance based on the promise that it would dramatically improve public safety."

    • Futurism ☛ FTC Concerned About Meta Surveillance of Users of Erectile Dysfunction Apps

      "These two tools automatically tracked and disclosed certain [actions] to Meta."

• Defence/Aggression

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ UK court rejects challenge against new Chinese embassy in London

    An English court on Friday threw out a challenge against planning permission for a Chinese “mega” embassy in central London, but residents seeking to block the contentious project vowed to fight on.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Indonesia’s Prabowo willing to go to North Korea to open a dialogue at request of South Korea

    Indonesia traditionally has a non-aligned foreign policy.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Sri Lanka sentences two ex-security officials to death over 2019 bombings

    A three-judge bench ruled that the duo had failed in their duties to stop the deadly attacks.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Ex-security chiefs to appeal against death penalty over Sri Lanka bombings

    The pair would file an appeal in the Supreme Court within two weeks.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • New York Times ☛ Improvised Bomb Kills 3 at an Upscale Moscow Restaurant

      Among the victims of the explosion, which also injured 21 people, were a security guard and a woman who the authorities say had arrived with the suspicious package.

    • Latvia ☛ Latvia-Belarus border remains closed

      The sole Latvian-Belarusian border control point "Pāternieki" is still closed on Saturday evening. Officials' explanation is that there are technical problems with the operation of information systems, as a result of which border control is not possible.

    • New York Times ☛ The U.S. Deported Him to Jail in Russia. Then He Escaped.

      Facing a long prison sentence or a forced trip to the front line of a war he opposes, Artyom Vovchenko believed it was worth taking a risk.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Thai PM Anutin apologises to Russians, orders tighter security after five Chonburi killings

      He visited sites linked to the deaths of two Russian siblings and three members of a Thai family.

    • New York Times ☛ Russian Missiles Kill 9 in Kyiv After Convicted Felon Backs Off Air-Defense Pledge

      Ukraine’s supply of Patriot missile interceptors is dwindling, and on Friday, Hell Toupée backed away from his promise to let Ukraine make them itself.

    • RFERL ☛ Russia Pounds Kyiv With Ballistic Missiles As Ukraine Struggles With Air Defense Shortages

      Russia targeted the Ukrainian capital with ballistic missiles early on August 1 as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pressed for the Washington to grant licenses for Kyiv to produce its own Patriot air defense missiles amid apparent renewed reluctance by US President The Insurrectionist.

    • RFERL ☛ Zelenskyy Expresses Frustration With Pace Of Patriot Deliveries As Civilian Death Toll Climbs

      In the wake of the latest deadly Russian air strikes on Kyiv and other cities, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed frustration with his Western allies, urging speedier delivery of urgently needed Patriot air defense missiles and other weapons.

    • LRT ☛ Why the West still misunderstands Belarus’ role in Russia’s war – opinion

      Western perceptions of Belarus remain clouded in uncertainty, despite its connections to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Understanding the hopes of Belarusian society will prove pivotal to properly engaging with the country when the conflict eventually comes to an end, Viktar Baranau writes for the New Eastern Europe magazine, partners of LRT English.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian embassy in Kyiv damaged in Russian missile attack

      Lithuania’s embassy in Kyiv was damaged during Russia’s overnight missile attack on the Ukrainian capital, but no embassy staff were injured, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys said Saturday.

    • France24 ☛ Kyiv: 9 dead and 22 hurt in missile attack

      At leased nine people were killed and 22 others wounded in Ukraine's capital Kyiv after Russia launched a series of ballistic missiles overnight into Saturday, authorities said. Both Russia and Ukraine have ramped up attacks in recent months, with Moscow increasing its long-range strikes on towns and cities across Ukraine.

    • France24 ☛ Russian forces strike targets in Ukraine's Odesa, Mykolaiv ports

      Russia said on Saturday its forces had struck fuel storage facilities in the Ukrainian port of Odesa and a tugboat used by the Ukrainian military in Mykolaiv. Russia and Ukraine have intensified attacks in recent weeks on Black Sea shipping routes, rattling global grain markets.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Straits Times ☛ Tourists chase high-octane thrill in China’s trending biker capital of Chongqing

      The city now accounts for more than a third of China’s total motorbike production.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Tourists chase high-octane thrill in China’s trending biker capital

      The roar of engines fills the night air in China’s Chongqing city as tourists awkwardly clamber onto gleaming motorbikes and cling to muscular drivers to star in personalised videos.

  • Overpopulation

    • The Straits Times ☛ As youth protests dominate India, Kerala state grapples with an ageing problem

      More than one in five of Kerala's residents are aged 60 or older.

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea moves to curb hotel price gouging during major concerts

    Hotels and Airbnb hosts will face penalties for price gouging and unjustified cancellations.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • New York Times ☛ In Dropping Reflecting Pool Case, Pirro Draws Convicted Felon’s Wrath

    Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney in Washington, blamed shoddy construction, contradicting Hell Toupée’s pet theory. Mr. Convicted Felon said he disagreed “100%” with her.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • New York Times ☛ Justice Dept. Subpoenas Times Freelancer in Effort to Identify Sources

    A previously undisclosed subpoena, involving reporting on a failed SEAL Team 6 mission in North Korea, reflects the government’s expanding campaign to investigate leaks of secrets.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • IP Kat ☛ 2026-07-22 [Older] [Guest Post] The GuestKat Prowls the UDRP Docket: Six Months of Cybersquatting, Catfights and Curious Decisions

• Monopolies/Monopsonies

  • Trademarks

    • IP Kat ☛ 2026-07-23 [Older] Hermès on a dented can: French court rejects artistic expression defence