Leftovers

• Science / Mathematics / Computer Science

  • Science Alert ☛ How Does Your Dog Impact Your Family's Health? Here's What We Know.

    It's complicated.

  • Science Alert ☛ A Brain Region May Link The 'Love Hormone' Oxytocin With Fear, Study Reveals

    Oxytocin could do much more than we realized.

  • Science Alert ☛ Ashes From Pompeii Reveal What The Doomed City Smelled Like 2,000 Years Ago

    The closest you can get to time travel.

  • Science Alert ☛ Experimental Alzheimer's Treatment Restores Two Hours of Sleep When Tested in Mice

    Breaking the feedback loop.

• Career/Education

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysian students in a bind over new US visa rules

    The previous policy allowed students to stay as long as they maintained their studies, without a fixed time cap.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Straits Times ☛ Unhealthy air quality hits seven areas in Sarawak, Selangor

    There is a risk of transboundary haze occurrence.

  • Science Alert ☛ Long COVID Linked to Lasting Damage in The Brain's Dopamine System

    The virus can cause serious damage.

• Proprietary / SaaS

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ x64 port of Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Word for backdoored Windows 1.1a arrives — you can now run this seminal 1990 word processor natively in backdoored Windows 11

    A developer has ported 1990's Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Word for backdoored Windows 1.1a to x64 so it can run natively on backdoored Windows 11 PC systems.

  • OMG Ubuntu ☛ Windows 11’s Weather app uses ~1GB RAM, GNU/Linux apps a fraction

    I was flummoxed to read a report on how much memory Microsoft’s Weather app uses on backdoored Windows 11 – more than 1GB just to render what is, ostensibly, a fancy table of stats. Less surprising is that the GNOME Weather app does the same job for under a fifth of the reported backdoored Windows figure, while Mousam, my go-to weather app, uses around a third of Microsoft’s effort (and with a nicer design, too). Not everyone on backdoored Windows 11 is seeing memory usage as high as the 1.1GB figure given in backdoored Windows Latest viral post.

  • OMG Ubuntu ☛ Orion for GNU/Linux beta update adds private browsing and link previews

    Kagi has released a new beta of Orion for Linux, a WebKitGTK-based port of its popular browser for macOS and IOS. Orion for GNU/Linux v0.4.1 builds on the v0.3.0 public beta, released in May, adding more features found on its macOS and iOS versions and improving existing ones. The new beta adds working private windows, a functional (if bare-bones) download manager and a toolbar overflow menu. The overflow menu lets you hide buttons out of the way but without making them hard to reach. Orion’s link preview feature also makes its way to Linux.

• Security

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  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Futurism ☛ The Real Victims of the Hey Hi (AI) Surveillance Panopticon? Crime Fiction Writers

      You have to get creative, and technical, to write a whodunnit in an age where cameras blanket every corner of the country.

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Straits Times ☛ Taiwan simulates repelling Chinese assault, to slow mobile internet in annual war games

    It will later in the day "throttle" mobile internet for the first time during annual war games.

  • New York Times ☛ Iran Taps Longtime I.R.G.C. Commander Mohsen Rezaei to Top Security Post

    The appointment of Mohsen Rezaei as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council suggests that Iran’s old guard is consolidating power.

  • France24 ☛ Iran sets tough terms to reopen Strait of Hormuz

    Iran’s national security chief has outlined a list of demands for the US to meet before Tehran reopens the Strait of Hormuz. They include lifting the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, compensation for war damages and the release of frozen Iranian assets. Separately, Iran and Oman say they are close to reaching a deal on managing the strategic waterway. France 24 International affairs editor Douglas Herbert shares further insights.

  • France24 ☛ Dozens of Nigerians freed after 6 months in Jihadi captivity

    In Nigeria, people rescued this week after being held captive by jihadists are speaking out about their ordeal. On Thursday, security forces freed 308 people who had been abducted six months ago in two separate locations in the country’s northwest. The government described it as the largest single-day rescue operation in the country’s history.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Taiwan bets on drone ‘hellscape’ to deter possible Chinese invasion

    Inspired by lessons from Ukraine, Taiwan is now accelerating efforts to put the strategy into practice.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • LRT ☛ Ukrainians took refuge in Poland. Now they're increasingly fearful

      Shortly before she and her boyfriend were brutally beaten on the streets of the Polish city of Wroclaw, a Ukrainian woman named Anastasia Kitsay was inside a shop buying coffee.

    • France24 ☛ Ukraine denies targeting Bulgaria, after drone exploded near a gas pipeline

      Ukraine says it did not target Bulgaria after a drone crashed near a gas pipeline in the country on Saturday. Bulgarian authorities said the drone appeared to be a type used by Ukraine’s military. It came down in a field near the Romanian border, not far from the Black Sea, where Russian and Ukrainian forces have been engaged in an intensifying drone war. Nicholas Rushworth has more.

    • France24 ☛ Russia and Ukraine exchange deadly overnight strikes

      Russia and Ukraine exchanged another round of overnight strikes, killing civilians and injuring many others on both sides. In Russia’s border region of Belgorod, Ukrainian drone attacks killed five people and wounded around two dozen others. Meanwhile, Russian missiles struck a high-rise apartment building in Kharkiv, killing two people, and injured several more in the Black Sea port of Odesa.

    • France24 ☛ North Korea may deploy up to 50,000 troops to Russia, Zelensky claims

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that as many as 50,000 North Korean soldiers could be deployed to Russia, reflecting growing military cooperation between the two countries. He did not elaborate on his sources for this information, but warned that Pyongyang could gain valuable battlefield experience and military technology through its support for Russia.

    • New York Times ☛ Syria Agrees to Reorganized Russian Military Presence

      After more than a year and a half of negotiations, Syria and Russia have agreed on new parameters of Russia’s military presence in Syria. Syria said it opens the way for a new phase in relations.

    • The Straits Times ☛ New Zealand slaps new sanctions against Russia after US move

      The US Senate passed a new Bill authorising tariffs on top buyers of Russia’s oil and gas.

    • France24 ☛ Syria, Russia agree to end military use of key Mediterranean bases

      Syria and Russia have agreed to end Moscow’s use of two strategic Mediterranean bases as military outposts, Syria's foreign ministry said Sunday. Under the deal, Damascus will take control of the Hmeimem air base and part of Tartous port, while the remaining military facilities will be converted into joint training centres.

• Environment

  • France24 ☛ Libreville grapples with water shortage [iophk: climate collapse, those are drying up before your eyes, that is becomming commonplace around the world now]

    Gabon’s capital, Libreville, has been facing severe water shortages for several months, driven by low rainfall, ageing infrastructure and rising demand from a growing population. The government declared a state of emergency earlier this month and called in military engineers for help. But a water distribution plan for affected neighbourhoods has failed to ease the crisis, after private water distributors took advantage of the scheme. France 24 reports from Libreville. Indira Ayuk, Ismaël Obiang Nze and Giresse Ngaana report.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Futurism ☛ Reading the Room Perfectly, The Insurrectionist Becomes Greatest Defender of Data Centers

      Mr. Populism strikes again.

    • CS Monitor ☛ Cyprus natural gas will help supply Europe by first half of 2028, official says

      The East Mediterranean is becoming an alternative energy source for Europe as Russia’s war in Ukraine and Middle East upheaval push Europe to find new sources.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Futurism ☛ Jeff Bezos Harshly Criticized for $200 Million Pledge to Protect the World’s Most Endangered Species

      "Uber-wealthy people helping a fraction of the problems that they cause."

    • NYPost ☛ Massive python with swollen belly found under NJ family’s shed — with X-ray revealing its last meal

      An X-ray performed by veterinary staff revealed the rare snake's devoured a large opossum before its capture.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong 47: 11 jailed democrats granted permission to appeal to top court

    Eleven pro-democracy figures jailed in the landmark “Hong Kong 47” national security case have won permission to appeal to the city’s top court.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Internet Society ☛ Advancing a Connected Future for Indigenous Communities

    Community-led Internet initiatives are empowering Indigenous communities worldwide through meaningful connectivity, digital inclusion, and self-determined digital futures.

• Monopolies/Monopsonies

  • Patents

    • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Examiner Allowance Rates Under Director Squires

      Examiner allowance rate data through January 2026 shows no Squires bump. The rate sits near 75%, well below the 2022-2023 peak above 82%.

    • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Ex parte Baurin and the Anti-Harassment Rationale for Double Patenting

      Ex parte Baurin sustains double patenting on an anti-harassment theory the USPTO distrusts, with the Federal Circuit's In re Ablynx up next.