Leftovers

• Nolan Lawson ☛ On not becoming a cyborg

  I was a voracious reader as a kid, and I noticed a funny phenomenon: whatever writer I had most recently read, my next paper for English class would sound like them. If I read a bunch of Stephen King, I’d sound like Stephen King.

• Thibault Martin: TIL that Deleting files is better than hoarding them

  I realized that deleting local copies of files early and often is better than keeping them forever.

  I'm the kind of person who will work on something, share their work, and then just let the file I had linger around indefinitely. You never know, it's better to have a local copy, it can save the day. Or you keep it at hand when you're offline. And do I really need a reason to keep a copy of the file I was working on anyway? Hoarding files and keeping them forever is tempting.

• New Eastern Europe ☛ Attention as a weapon: how Ukraine kept the world from looking away

  We are often asked, in various forums, how Ukraine has managed to remain at the centre of international attention for a fifth year, despite competing crises and political cycles in partner countries. We interviewed dozens of Ukrainian experts and saw a mosaic of factors emerge, among which eight stand out.

• Ruben Schade ☛ Replacing gift cards with hóngbāo

  Clara made the point to me earlier that even with the best of intentions, some gifts are bound to fall flat. A red packet will ensure you get what you want, and without the increasingly unsustainable and wasteful return process. With younger generations facing the reality of living on less than their parents in many parts of the world (while being chided for being lazy, entitled, or any number of other epithets), I expect a well timed red packet would do wonders.

• Naty S ☛ Blaugust 2026 Recap: Summary From a First Time Participant

  In terms of how this blogging challenge changed me as a blogger, I think the net result was positive. It gave me a reason to capture fleeting moments, put the experience into words, and publish it quickly; instead of drafting notes that might never be shared.

• Ken Klippenstein ☛ ICE’s Robot Dogs; WNBA Does Counterterrorism; Flock and Awe

  Working with Google’s tech incubator Jigsaw, Moonshot built the “Redirect Method” during the war on terror: algorithmic search-ad targeting that steered people looking for terrorist propaganda toward curated de-radicalization content. It is the height of naïveté to think a man drawn to violent jihad can be search-added into the Boy Scouts. But that is now the methodology being deployed against people who are rude about basketball on the internet.

• Six Colors ☛ How to tap into network debugging

  I know there’s no connection between my local area network and our house’s plumbing system, but when the faucet started running uncontrollably literally seconds after I fixed a network outage, I had to wonder: did we have a poltergeist? The jury is still out. But I can tell you that my hour of fruitless examination of router settings is to your benefit: you won’t have to do this when it happens to you.

• Dan Q ☛ How do people blog for thirty years without running out of things to say?

  Anyway: Oli’s latest blog post, How do people blog for thirty years without running out of things to say?, touches on another difference between our respective blogs: mine is old. Not quite 30 years, as he hints, but next month it will be 28 days since my first blog post, and in January it’ll be 28 years since my oldest surviving contemporaneous blog post.

  How do people blog for this long without running out of things to say, asks Oli. And then, over the course of his post and via a glimpse at a post-ideas spreadsheet (as well as a conversation with an LLM), he comes to a conclusion: [...]

• Matt Cool ☛ Doorman: A Privacy-Focused Agentic Doorbell

  Doorman combines a Raspberry Pi doorbell, local inference on the Jetson Orin Nano, and an agent running on Google Cloud.

  The physical doorbell uses a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W connected to the camera and door hardware. Its video stream goes to Frigate running on an NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano.

• Jim Nielsen ☛ My Experience Has Nuance, Yours Is a Data Point

  Eric Bailey has a fun little post about how we need more than a few icons to express the nuance of our shared human experience.

• Harmonicon: a rhythm game you play on a real harmonica

  For once, something on this blog that isn’t C++.

  Harmonicon is a rhythm game for blues harmonica. Notes scroll toward a hit line and you play on an actual harmonica, into your microphone, and the game listens.

  The idea

  The harmonica is cheap, fits in a pocket, and it hides everything: the reeds are inside, your tongue and throat do most of the work, and nothing about the instrument tells you whether the note that just came out is the note you meant. You can practise a bend wrong for a month quite happily.

• Science / Mathematics / Computer Science

  • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ Archaeologists in Denmark Discover Rare Fragments of 1,300-Year-Old Clothing Preserved Inside a Viking Age Grave

    Surviving Viking Age clothing is extremely rare, with most physical evidence limited to “small pieces of material preserved by chance,” the National Museum of Denmark notes on its website. “Our knowledge about Viking clothes is supplemented by written sources, as well as clothes depicted on small figures and tapestries.”

  • Mark Litwintschik ☛ Tasking RADARSAT

    The three satellites in the RCM constellation capture Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery as well as AIS tracking data from ships. SAR allows for imagery to be taken day or night and can see through clouds and through some types of camouflage. It can also be used to classify the materials it captures. I'm not sure if RCM supports this, but commercial SAR operators can also capture video, not just still imagery.

    The constellation is primarily used for maritime surveillance, disaster management, climate research as well as oil exploration. They can capture imagery from 95% of the Earth's surface on any given day.

  • Science Alert ☛ Soil Scientists Buried 2,000 Pairs of Underwear to Prove a Point

    Talk about airing our dirty laundry.

  • Science Alert ☛ What Do You See? This Week's Monday Microscope Mystery

    Test yourself!

  • Science Alert ☛ GPS Glitched Across The US by as Much as 33 Feet. Scientists Have Never Seen This Before.

    This shouldn't have happened.

  • Science Alert ☛ 'Wonder Drug': Common Diabetes Pill Could Transform How We Age, Scientists Say

    An incredible medicine we still don’t fully understand.

  • Science Alert ☛ Breakthrough Evidence: Nuclear Fusion 'Flaw' Could Actually Be Part of The Solution

    A double-edged nuclear sword.

• Career/Education

  • [Old] XenForo Ltd ☛ D&D General - Correspondence with David Trampier and A History of His 1985 Attempt to Crowdfund a Wormy Anthology | EN World D&D & Tabletop RPG News & Reviews

    Trampier continued to produce Wormy for over two more years, until Dragon 132 (April 1988). IIRC, the release date for Dragon back then was about a month before the cover date, so the April 1988 issue would get to subscribers in early March. Using his deadline info from his second letter, he probably submitted that last strip around December of 1987. I know he was disappointed that the Wormy Anthology was not successful (weren't we all?), but with the timing, I don't see this as a precipitating event for him leaving the strip and the business.

  • The Independent UK ☛ Parents Demanding Tech Opt Outs Take Their Fight to Federal Court

    Parents pushing back against technology in the classroom have so far directed their anger toward major corporations like Google and Curriculum Associates, the company behind the widely used i-Ready platform.

    But the “techlash” took a turn last week when seven parents in a Philadelphia suburb sued their school district in federal court for not allowing families to opt their children out of using the [Internet].

  • Robert Birming ☛ A successful mistake

    Sometimes the wrong note is how you find your own kind of music.

  • David Pogue ☛ Steve Jobs, Closed Macs, and Me: A Guest Post

    I interviewed 150 people for my book “Apple: The First 50 Years”—and one of the most intriguing was Del Yocam. Apple hired him as director of materials in 1979, only three years after the company’s founding. “Oh, it was a mess,” he told me of his arrival. “There were product pieces, all kinds of stock, everywhere. There were all kinds of Apple II’s sitting there, not moving because of shortage of parts.”

    Yocam, then 35, was a details guy. He’d worked at Ford and two minicomputer companies, so he was well-versed in parts-intensive companies. He wound up staying at Apple for ten years, rising to become chief operating officer.

  • [Repeat] Daniel Miessler ☛ The Link Between Your Workplace Situation and Your Mental Health

    One thing I keep forgetting and relearning is how important it is to us that people appreciate our work. The following thing has happened multiple times: to me, my partner, my friends, associates, and people I've just observed over the years.

    We have violent swings of emotions between being in a titanic pose on the front of a ship and feeling like life doesn't matter over the course of one to two days or weeks.

    And if you look at what changed, it is the perception of your boss and management and your peers of the work that you are doing.

  • Naty S ☛ Some Thoughts on Advice —BurgeonLab

    It’s hard to think of a single piece of advice that overrules all the rest, but here are some that I follow: [...]

• Hardware

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ China's CXMT beats Western chipmakers to announcement of LPDDR6 mass production — Xiaomi smartphones to debut industry’s first LPDDR6 chips

    CXMT claims to be the first to mass-produce LPDDR6 memory. Yet, for a niche phone.

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Trying out an ATAPI Zip drive again

    One of the first things I bought with my own money as a kid was an internal 100 MB Iomega Zip drive with an ATAPI interface. I remember asking my computer teacher Mr Jones where he’d got his, and he wrote me a referral that got me a bit of a discount, which was great. I used that drive for everything for years, amassing a small tower of the grey disks and their jewel cases. I envied the MO disks my Japanese friends had, but I couldn’t fault my Zip drive.

  • Benji Encalada Mora ☛ benji

    Had a great time at this year's MN mechanical keyboard meetup and even got to see my friend David and his keyboards in real life!

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ Michigan school districts offer insurance-free care to beat rising health costs

    Direct primary care typically works outside insurance. But what if it were instead added to existing coverage? Three Michigan school districts are giving it a try.

  • New York Times ☛ C.D.C. Director Challenges Pennsylvania’s Report of Two Measles Deaths

    Questioning a state’s investigation is highly unusual for the public health agency, but reflects tensions between the Convicted Felon administration and many states over health issues.

  • Science Alert ☛ Over 90% of Human Rabies Cases in The US Aren't Detected, Study Finds

    A new analysis published in Communications Health suggests that official figures may dramatically underestimate how many human cases of rabies are actually circulating in the US each year.

  • NYPost ☛ Popular sugar substitute linked to increased heart attack and stroke risk

    Xylitol is often used to sweeten foods, drinks, chewing gum and dental care products.

  • Latvia ☛ Tularemia risk increases in Latvia

    The Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (SPKC) reported on August 31 that the incidence of the infectious disease tularemia, which is transmitted by animals including rodents, ticks, mosquitoes and horseflies, is on the rise in Latvia.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia’s Sabah on haze alert as air quality in state capital hits unhealthy level

    Tawau, the district straddling North Kalimantan, recorded an API reading of 153.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia’s Sarawak eyes cloud seeding as haze worsens

    The cloud-seeding also aims to replenish critically depleted reservoirs and dams after a prolonged dry spell.

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ Is it parmesan-style or Parmesano? Mexico-US trade talks hit snag over cheese names

    Are popular cheeses like feta and manchego generic or region-specific? Mexico has already agreed with the EU that the latter is the case, which the U.S. claims threatens its US $2 billion worth of cheese exports to Mexico.

• Proprietary / Vendor Lock-in / Malware

  • Karl Bode ☛ Apple CEO Tim Cook's Legacy Is Dull Products And Spineless Capitulation

    Tim Cook enthusiastically supported global authoritarian policies while turning Apple Computer into a dull simulacrum of an interesting company.

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

    • Digital Music News ☛ Multiple YouTube, Amazon Music, and Spotify Profiles of Jazz Legends Hijacked to Churn Out Hey Hi (AI) Slop to Unsuspecting Fans

      Spam farms have hijacked the YouTube and Spotify profiles of numerous jazz musicians, pushing out genAI slop tracks with cover art featuring genAI anime girls. The Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube profiles of jazz musicians like William “Sonny” Criss have been inundated with Hey Hi (AI) spam on a concerning level.

    • Futurism ☛ Spotify and YouTube Profiles of Legendary Jazz Musicians Hijacked by Hey Hi (AI) Waifu Spam

      Beyond parody.

    • I Built a Portable Offline Internet with Maps, Wikipedia and Local AI [Ed: Slop disguised as Hey Hi (AI) is not a productivity tool, it's guesswork based on chaff from plagiarism engine]

      What if you could take a useful portion of the internet with you anywhere, completely offline? In this box is access to Maps, Wikipedia, an Hey Hi (AI) assistant, useful tools, and even things my own media library, all running locally, without needing an internet connection.

    • Futurism ☛ Alarming Study Suggests That Using Hey Hi (AI) Is Turning Humans More Robotic

      "Robots become more like people, and people become more like robots."

    • Futurism ☛ Data Center Backlash Has Officially Rattled Scam Altman

      "People are pretty negative on AI."

    • Digital Music News ☛ Meet the Musicians Leading the Anti-AI ‘Callout Culture’

      A group of musicians is taking a stand against generative Hey Hi (AI) technology, and they’re on the hunt for Hey Hi (AI) “grifters” trying to pass off Hey Hi (AI) slop as human-made art. How do you identify a song that’s been generated with Hey Hi (AI) and claims to be human-made?

    • El Constitucional ☛ Trump plays with fire with Iran and publishes a montage made with Artificial Intelligence that shows the false destruction of Kharg Island

      Hours later, there was still no record of any US bombing of Kharg. The images were identified as synthetically generated content, and Iranian authorities themselves responded to the publication. Hamid Bovard, head of the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company, has called Trump's messages "ridiculous" and has assured that the situation on the island remains "calm and normal".

    • Sightline Media Group ☛ The military’s ChatGPT is now live via the Pentagon’s GenAI platform

      GenAI.mil has already attracted more than 1.7 million unique users, according to the Defense Department. The platform launched nine months ago and is intended to serve the department’s more than 3 million personnel.

      For the Navy and Marine Corps, GenAI.mil is already an enterprise requirement. A January Navy memorandum designated it as the Department of the Navy’s mandated CUI and IL5 generative-AI platform and directed Navy organizations and commands to transition to it by April 30.

    • Wired ☛ You Know Who Really Hates AI? Insurance Claims Adjusters

      Typically, insurance adjusters complain about “AI-obsessed leaders forcing error-prone AI on them and their clients,” according to the research. When AI falls short in this job, adjusters say, they have to clean up a very human mess.

      Take Ahmad Jackson. About a year ago, he was working in the claims department for a major insurance company. His employer decided to use AI for initial loss reporting, which involves setting up claims and gathering information when someone first discloses an incident. It was supposed to be a boon for employees and policyholders alike, streamlining simple claims while transferring more complex situations to actual people.

    • Digital Camera World ☛ "AI can't do what we do," say Royal Navy photographers in epic new featurette, 'Life Through The Lens'

      According to former Royal Navy photographer Sean Clee: “AI can’t replicate what we do. It can’t go out on the ground. It can’t search out human interest stories.” Clee served for a quarter of a century in the Navy, the latter 15 years with a camera in hand.

    • Matt Birchler ☛ You didn't write that, you're just a meat proxy

      Love this. I mean, I hate this and it annoys me every time someone forwards me some text that they clearly didn't write, but I love the term.

    • Kelson Vibber ☛ Sometimes Reality is Unrealistic...

      It’s no surprise that readers were so quick to assume the photo was flat-out generated slop based on the apparent mismatch (not counting the obviously intentional subscribe button). “AI”-generated images have flooded the zone, and while there used to be some obvious tells — badly drawn hands, for instance — they’re getting to be a lot subtler.

      Now we all second-guess everything we see, because to do otherwise would leave us open to being manipulated by falsehoods. And it’s not just knowing whether the image shows something real, but to know whether the image represents real human intention. The *ahem* key aspect of this image is the big red subscribe button, which is obviously not real, but it’s intentionally not real.

    • Joshua Blais ☛ AI Writing is an Insult to Humanity

      I saw a piece of writing on Hackernews the other day that was obviously LLM generated, and I had a bit of a crashout. I won’t link the piece here, because I won’t give any validity to what is being shared, nor should you.

      The writing always has a specific odor about it, it is easy to pick out when you’ve seen it for about 2 minutes, and is littered with corpospeak and feels like you’re talking to a middle manager or someone in HR.

      If it took you all of 30 seconds to generate a piece of writing, but you expect me to spend 5 minutes reading it, I’m sorry, but the ROI for me isn’t there.

    • Drew Breunig ☛ Who Taught the Models to Do That?

      Crazy, right? It’s a science fiction scenario that happened in July, and continues to get spookier as additional details emerge.

      The potential of autonomous software, capable of implementing incredible exploits is serious and has significant implications. The attack was surprising, but the capabilities were deliberately cultivated. Labs have spent years making frontier agents more persistent, more proactive, better at using computers, and better at coordinating with other agents.

    • University of Toronto ☛ There's a difference between a technology being ineffective and being uneconomical

      That a technology is effective (in some area) and currently economical doesn't mean that you necessarily have to use it in that area, at least for personal things. You might choose to prioritize ethical and other concerns over "productivity". But unfortunately I'm less and less convinced that people in the technology field really care about such things, either in their paid work or outside of it.

      (Corporations certainly don't care. "Externalities" are other people's problems unless and until something forces the corporation to care.)

    • Nolan Lawson ☛ On not becoming a cyborg

      So how do we fight this horde of agents colonizing our brains? In short: stay human, friends. Resist the whispering earring. Be jealous of your time and attention, and try to find other sources of artistic and intellectual sustenance than the chatbots. As doomed as it may feel, try to keep a part of yourself that is the tiny little village of Gauls holding off the Roman invaders. Whatever your inner sanctum is, protect it from AI infiltration.

      One strategy is to be deliberate about where you expose yourself to AI influence. I recently vibe-coded a silly guitar app to try to help me get better at guitar solos – I play a phrase, the AI responds to my phrase, etc. I have no concerns about my guitar-playing becoming robotic, because I’m not trying to become Eddie Van Halen; I’m starting from such a low bar that even playing a halfway-decent riff in the pentatonic scale is challenging enough for me. Elsewhere, I’m more guarded.

    • European Commission ☛ Commission designates ChatGPT, Reddit, Roblox under Digital Services Act*

      European Commission Press release Brussels, 31 Aug 2026 Today, the Commission has designated Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot as a Very Large Online Search Engine (VLOSE), as well as Reddit and Roblox as Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs), under the Digital Services Act (DSA).

  • Social Control Media

    • Digital Music News ☛ Senators File Amicus Brief Opposing Roblox Invoking Forced Arbitration of Child Sexual Abuse Survivor

      Senators file an amicus brief opposing Roblox’s and Discord’s appeal, arguing that the Ending Forced Arbitration Act (EFAA) prevents forced arbitration of a sexual abuse survivor.

    • Los Angeles Times ☛ Teen accused of livestreaming San Diego mosque shooting faces murder charges

      O’Neill said that the goal of publishing the livestream was to “memorialize the two terrorists,” and that it is important that the charges send a strong message that “what happened back in May of 2026 should not be something anybody should be watching or glorifying.”

    • CS Monitor ☛ Reform of social media, click by click

      In the Aug. 26 agreement ending a court case, Meta did not accept culpability for features that the prosecution, as well as former employees, alleged are designed to target and hook younger users of Facebook and Instagram. But it did agree to institute measures such as setting default time limits on daytime use (two hours), blocking those apps from midnight to 6 a.m., and blocking notifications during the school day for accounts owned by young people. These restrictions would require parental permission to be altered.

    • The Nation ☛ While Losing a Real War, Pete Hegseth Is Building a Troll Army

      Unfortunately, acknowledging defeat doesn’t come easily to either Donald Trump or the ridiculous martinet he nominated to run the military, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Both Trump and Hegseth are cultural warriors first and foremost, interested in winning battles on social issues by purging trans soldiers from the military, blocking the advancement of women and Blacks in the upper ranks, and overturning anything they consider DEI (a broad category that includes even acknowledging that Black soldiers have served with distinction).

    • FSF ☛ The FSF is now on Bluesky: Here's how and why we did it

      The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is now on Bluesky, the microblogging service based on the AT Protocol. We can't advocate that you sign up for a Bluesky account like we do with Mastodon or PeerTube since signing up for Bluesky means loading the registration page's nonfree JavaScript. But, we have done this ourselves to make an effort to reach people where they are, letting them know about software freedom, including establishing understanding of the issues of this service itself. We post on the platform via a program our tech team specifically wrote for us to integrate into our existing workflow. If you're on social media, follow the FSF on Bluesky and on Mastodon today.

    • International Business Times ☛ Harry and Meghan Likened to 'Mickey and Minnie Mouse' Taking on 'King Kong' After Meta Criticism

      The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been compared to 'Mickey and Minnie Mouse' taking on 'King Kong' after they commented on Meta's multibillion-dollar child-safety settlement.

      The comparison came from Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir, who criticised the couple for weighing in on the agreement involving Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.

    • Michael Geist ☛ Big Money, Bigger Design Changes: What the Meta Settlement Means for Canada, Bill C-34, and the Age Verification and Privacy Risks That Remain

      The Canadian implications begin with the emphasis on design regulation rather than on social media bans. As I noted when the defective design verdict was released in April, regulating how platforms are designed, rather than who may use them, is the better approach. The Bill C-34 legislative approach to implementing similar changes offers a more sustainable mechanism than settlements obtained through litigation. Despite its detail, the settlement is limited to Meta services for ten years (some of the core protections reportedly last only five unless Snap, TikTok, and YouTube adopt equivalent restrictions) and includes a clause providing that nothing in the agreement shall “establish a standard of care for, or serve as precedent in any non-participating U.S. state or any international jurisdiction whatsoever.”

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ Man uses robot vacuum to covertly record his wife's affair, wins divorce settlement but gets sentenced to prison for making an illegal recording — Husband lands behind bars after counter-suit over privacy rights

      A Taiwanese man sued his wife for having an affair using recordings from a robot vacuum to prove his case. He won, but got sued by the wife for infringing on her personal privacy and was fined the equivalent of 30% of what he earned as compensation previously.

    • The Independent UK ☛ Face scans are replacing passports at US airports. Here’s who can — and can’t — opt out

      American citizens can still ask for a manual check by a CBP officer when going through security at a U.S. airport.

      Additionally, travelers using an Enhanced Passenger Processing kiosk who do not want their photo taken can alert an officer and taken to a different line to go through a manual verification process, CBP says on its website.

    • The Guardian UK ☛ The law won’t save us from Meta’s ‘pervert glasses’. The only solution is mockery

      Of course, Meta has no intention of doing anything quite so dignified or responsible as that. The prospect that users of its new glasses might wish to film people covertly and without consent appears not to have occurred to one of the world’s leading tech companies. Nor the possibility that owners might try to disable or cover up the little LED that displays when the camera is recording. Instead, the company has embarked on a publicity blitz, reassuring us all that our privacy is, if not quite their number one priority, then certainly there or thereabouts.

    • BIA Net ☛ İstanbul police drones warn against drinking

      On Narlikapi Avenue in Fatih an İstanbul police drone flashed siren lights and issued a warning over loudspeakers to passerbys: "This is a police drone, drinking alcohol in this area is prohibited," followed by instructions to “leave the area immediately.”

      The scene quickly spread on social media. Many users said that the scene felt very dystopian, directly out of a science fiction movie. Some raised concerns about surveillance more broadly.

    • NL Times ☛ European Commission gives ChatGPT, Roblox, Reddit 4 months to meet safety requirements

      On Monday, the European Commission stated that ChatGPT, Roblox, and Reddit fall under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) because they all have at least 45 million monthly users in the European Union. That means that the platforms now have four months to make sure they comply with the stricter rules that apply to very large search engines and online platforms.

      The Commission reports that the rules aim at tackling risks posed to users in Europe, including in the Netherlands, that come with running very large online platforms. Specifically, “when it comes to illegal content and their impact on fundamental rights, public security, and well-being."

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ EU puts ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox under stricter rules

      The European Commission said on Monday that US-based platforms ChatGPT, Reddit, and Roblox will now face stricter data protection rules after passing a key user threshold.

      Now that all three have over 45 million average monthly users in the European Union, they are now obliged to assess and mitigate potential risks related to illegal content, protection of minors, and users' mental health.

      The Digital Services Act (DSA), which came into effect across the bloc in February, has already been applied to companies such as TikTok and Meta.

    • Papers Please ☛ Airline reservations are still being used to target dissidents

      Much of the public interest in the case of Samuel Tunick has focused on the charge — carrying up to a five-tear prision sentence — that Mr. Tunick “destroyed property to prevent its seizure” by the government by giving Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents at the Atlanta airport a “duress password” for a smartphone Mr. Tunich was carrying when he returned from an international trip.

      The phone seized from Mr. Tunick at the airport was running Graphene OS, an open-source variant of the Android operating system. When one of the CBP agents entered the password Mr. Tunick (under duress) provided, it wiped the phone’s user memory and reset the phone to a state as though the OS had just been installed.

  • Confidentiality

    • Scoop News Group ☛ McKesson copes with fallout from data theft extortion attack

      The major healthcare sector vendor did not identify the attackers, but ShinyHunters, a prolific group increasingly targeting the sector, claimed responsibility.

    • Security Week ☛ McKesson Confirms Data Breach as Attacker Deadline Looms

      The ShinyHunters extortion group has claimed the theft of 284 million records from the company’s systems.

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Straits Times ☛ Japan to survey emergency shelters in preparation for missile strikes

    As of April 2025, 61,142 facilities nationwide had been designated as emergency shelters.

  • Site36 ☛ Gaza drones: German government was entitled to rely on assurances from Israel, court rules against a Palestinian

    A Palestinian man living in Gaza spent nearly two years fighting to force Berlin to restrict Israel’s use of two German-leased drones – and lost. Judges in Münster found no legal basis for his claim, despite his lawyer’s objections.

  • The Straits Times ☛ ‘Unpredictable’ China strengthening air and sea control nearby, says Taiwan

    An annual review of the Chinese threat by Taipei also said China was learning lessons from the Iran war.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China warns of 'consequences' over Taiwan's attendance at Pacific leaders meeting

    China said it had serious concerns about Taiwan's presence at the annual Pacific Islands Forum in Palau, warning of \"consequences\" after the democratically ruled island attended the group's opening ceremony on Monday.

  • [Old] The Lawfare Institute ☛ How ‘Unraveled’ Does Trump Have to Be? Presidential Disability and the 25th Amendment.

    Vanity Fair recently reported that White House sources believe the president is “unraveling.” As politicos across a widening swath of the ideological spectrum grow concerned with the president’s conduct, temperament and basic competence, references to the 25th Amendment have proliferated.

  • [Old] University of Colorado Boulder ☛ A Constitution for the Age of Demagogues: Using the Twenty-Fifth: Amendment to Remove an Unfit President [PDF]

    This Article argues that, properly understood, the Twenty-Fifth Amendment is designed to allow the Executive and Legislative Branches, working together, to remove a president from office when it becomes evident that the person elevated to that office by the electoral process is manifestly unsuited for what can, without exaggeration, be described as the most important job in the world.

    It argues further that the first two years of Donald Trump’s presidency have provided a great deal of evidence for the proposition that President Trump has, in fact, demonstrated the requisite level of fundamental unfitness for the office that would justify using the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to remove him. This Article also argues that the cultural conditions that brought President Trump to office make it far from unlikely that other occasions to use the Twenty-Fifth Amendment in this way will arise in the foreseeable future.

  • The Strategist ☛ The other ANZUS at 75: Australia-NZ alliance is too important to overlook

    Although ANZUS never lapsed between Australia and New Zealand, in recent decades, Wellington has preferred to downplay the treaty and talk up bilateral arrangements, such as the 1944 Canberra Pact and the Closer Defence Relations initiative that began in 1991. Meanwhile, both sides have championed a history of mateship dating back to Gallipoli and the formation of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) in World War I.

  • Semafor Inc ☛ Nigeria’s kidnapping industry and elections

    That 2015 election is significant because it was held a year after nearly 300 girls were abducted from a school in the northeast Nigerian town of Chibok by jihadist group Boko Haram. That mass abduction, which garnered global headlines, was the template for a kidnap-for-ransom strategy that has been honed by criminal gangs who mostly operate in northern Nigeria but in recent years have spawned copycat abductions in other parts of the country. Mass kidnappings have now become an industry, as our Lagos-based correspondent Alexander Onukwue reports.

  • Allbritton Journalism Institute ☛ Army Secretary to Step Down After Months of Tension With Hegseth

    Driscoll’s departure follows months of tension with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the direction of the Army and Hegseth’s removal of senior officers.

  • Robert Reich ☛ Who’s Nuts?

    Totalitarian movements, Arendt wrote, succeed not by convincing people of a specific lie but by creating a consistent, logical fictional world that defies ordinary common sense and human experience.

    Which raises the questions that a growing number of Americans are asking: Is Trump insane? Are those who believe Trump’s artificially fabricated world insane? Are they making the rest of us insane?

  • The Straits Times ☛ US, allies’ maritime drills are a ‘threat’ to North Korea: KCNA

    Pyongyang branded Washington as hostile.

  • The Straits Times ☛ North Korea says hostile US policy unchanged, vows to strengthen nuclear force

    North Korea said on Monday the United States' hostile policy remained unchanged and vowed to continue strengthening its nuclear force, rejecting repeated U.S. calls for its denuclearisation.

  • New York Times ☛ These Generals Fought for Israel. Now They See ‘Jewish Terrorism’ as the Threat.

    A growing number of former Israeli generals, intelligence officials and prime ministers are accusing settlers in the West Bank of committing ethnic cleansing with government support. “Once a society behaves this way,” one said, “that society is doomed.”

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • International Business Times ☛ Russian Strike Destroys Kyiv Printing Plant Producing 1.3 Million Schoolbooks Before New Term

      Ukraine starts the new school year with textbook shortages after Russian strikes hit key publishers. Konvi planned to produce 1.3 million schoolbooks before a Russian missile destroyed its Kyiv printing plant in July.

      The damage now affects September supplies as pupils return to class. Ukraine's Education Ministry says publishers are reprinting lost textbooks, with replacements due by 1 November.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuania to require vocational training for foreigners in Lithuanian

      Vocational training for foreigners in Lithuania will no longer be offered solely in foreign languages starting in September, with courses required to be taught in Lithuanian or bilingually, the Education, Science and Sports Ministry said Monday.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian president says security situation unchanged after CIA chief’s Moscow visit

      Lithuania’s security situation has not changed following a visit to Moscow by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, President Gitanas Nausėda said Monday, adding that he hoped the talks would help reduce tensions in the region.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Summit with Russia, India and Iran shows leverage wars have given Pooh-tin of China

      Xi has undermined efforts by the US and its allies to pressure Russia and Iran economically.

    • New York Times ☛ Europe Protests as U.S. Invites Russian Minister to G20 Finance Meeting

      The meeting, which China and Russia are attending, is focused on the ongoing economic shock from the war in Iran, which has driven up oil prices globally.

    • France24 ☛ Spain blames Israel, Russia for spreading disinformation during Ceuta crisis

      Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said there were signs Russia and Israel had spread the disinformation over Spain's migration policy that triggered last month's rush of migrants into Ceuta, but no evidence of Moroccan ​involvement. Both Israel and Russia have denied their involvement. Over 72,000 migrants ‌irregularly crossed from Morocco into the tiny Spanish territory between July 30 and 31 ⁠in an unprecedented surge. FRANCE 24's Sarah Morris tells us more.

    • Defence Web ☛ Niger’s junta survives mutiny with Russian support

      Niger’s military junta has survived what can be described as one of the most significant challenges to the regime’s survival [...]

    • New York Times ☛ Ukrainian Drone Mastermind, Fired by Kyiv, Will Advise Italy’s Defense Chief

      The appointment of Mykhailo Fedorov, a Ukrainian former defense minister, showed how other militaries are racing to adapt to battlefield changes accelerated by the war in Ukraine.

    • New York Times ☛ Nonstop Russian Drones Make for Dangerous New Phase of War in Kyiv

      The nearly constant air raids, a shift from years of largely overnight attacks, have left residents exhausted and on edge.

    • CS Monitor ☛ In Russia-occupied Crimea, Ukrainian attacks land differently for divided residents

      Crimea has been targeted this summer by a Ukrainian drone and missile offensive meant to isolate the Russian-occupied peninsula. While all sides are feeling the economic impact and loss of tourism, some are heartened and others resentful.

    • International Business Times ☛ Russian Strike Destroys Kyiv Printing Plant Producing 1.3 Million Schoolbooks Before New Term

      Ukraine starts the new school year with textbook shortages after Russian strikes hit key publishers, including Konvi's Kyiv printing plant.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Convicted Of Ukraine War Crimes Has Sentence Reduced In Finland

      A Finnish appeals court has overturned ⁠portions of a guilty verdict against a Russian-born man convicted of war crimes in Ukraine, reducing his life sentence to 12-1/2 years behind bars.

    • RFERL ☛ Zelenskyy Briefed By Convicted Felon Envoys, While Russia Makes Surprise G20 Appearance In US

      Ukrainian ⁠President ⁠Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was briefed by US President The Insurrectionist’s special envoys following their latest trip to Moscow and said the two Americans were working on plans for a follow-up visit to Kyiv in the near future.

    • France24 ☛ Macron seals €4.3-bn French frigate deal in Sweden

      President Emmanuel Macron on Monday oversaw the signing of a 4.3-billion-euro ($4.9 billon) deal for Sweden to buy four French frigates as France and Sweden seek to tighten cooperation against a backdrop of growing Russian threats. Sweden is racing to boost its defences after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, with the Nordic country becoming a NATO member two years later. FRANCE 24's James Vasina reports.

    • Latvia ☛ 70 thousand euros donated so far in LSM's campaign for Ukraine

      To mark Ukraine’s Independence Day, Latvian Public Media, in collaboration with the charity organisation “Ziedot.lv”, is organising a fundraising campaign entitled “In thoughts and deeds together with Ukraine”.

    • New York Times ☛ Summit With Russia, India and Iran Shows Leverage Wars Have Given Pooh-tin of China

      A two-day conference of the 10-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Kyrgyzstan shows the limits of U.S. economic warfare.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Putin, Pooh-tin hold talks in Kyrgyzstan as regional summit begins

      The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation seeks to be a counterbalance to the West.

    • The Straits Times ☛ India’s Modimir tells Russia’s Putin that the war in Ukraine must end for humanity’s sake

      Modi said New Delhi would support every peace effort to stop the fighting.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China’s Pooh-tin and Iran’s Pezeshkian in Kyrgyzstan, Putin expected

      China’s Pooh-tin Jinping and Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian were in Kyrgyzstan for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, with Russia’s Vladimir Putin expected later on Monday for the two-day event that will involve over a dozen other leaders.

    • France24 ☛ Xi, Putin hold talks ahead of Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit

      Chinese President Pooh-tin Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin are among the heads of state attending a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit taking place in Kyrgyzstan.  Iran's president Masoud Pezeshkian is also in attendance, where he held bilateral talks with India's Narendra Modi.  Marking its 25th anniversary this year, the SCO has strengthened trade ties among its members as the bloc looks to present an alternative to the US-led world order.

    • European Commission ☛ NextGenerationEU reaches implementation deadline

      European Commission Press release Brussels, 31 Aug 2026 Today marks an important milestone for the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU, as Member States reach the final implementation deadline for the reforms and investments set out in their national recovery and resilience plans. This is a defining moment for the EU's unprecedented common response to two major crises: the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

• Environment

  • France24 ☛ Glacial flood death toll surpasses 900 in Nepal and Tibet

    Rescuers battled mud and debris Monday as the death toll from devastating glacial floods along the China-Nepal border topped 900, with nearly 4,500 people still missing. Rescue teams continued a desperate search for survivors as entire communities were swept away.

  • France24 ☛ Nepal disaster: fake and Hey Hi (AI) images flood social control media as deaths mount

    As deadly floods hit the Nepal-China border, social control media is being flooded with fake and misleading footage. In Truth or Fake, Vedika Bahl goes through viral videos falsely linked to the disaster, including AI-generated content and old recycled footage from India, Chile and Alaska. Some posts have racked up millions of views online, exploiting the tragedy to drive engagement for easy clicks or further perpetuate conspiracy theories.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China penalises 10 people for misinformation over deadly mudslide near Nepal border

    Chinese authorities penalised 10 people accused of spreading misinformation online about a deadly mudslide along the Nepal border, police said Monday, as rescuers scour for hundreds missing at a border crossing on the Tibetan side.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China penalises 10 people for misinformation over deadly mudslide

    Authorities did not specify what punishment each person received.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Nepal teams seek hundreds trapped in hydropower tunnels after deadly floods

    Nepal's rescue teams, helped by Chinese and Indian experts, worked overnight to reach hundreds of people believed to be stuck inside blocked hydropower project tunnels in the aftermath of last week's Himalayan flood that carved a trail of destruction in the country's valley towns and villages as well as across the border in China.

  • France24 ☛ Hundreds feared stuck in hydropower tunnels as flood deaths surpass 950 in Nepal and China

    Rescuers raced Monday to free hundreds of workers believed to be trapped in tunnels at hydropower sites that were buried in mud by catastrophic flooding on the Nepal-China border, as the death toll climbed and increasingly desperate families searched for missing loved ones. FRANCE 24's Eliza Herbert reports.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Nepal-China flood deaths surge past 900 as rescuers struggle through ‘unimaginable’ disaster

    The number of people missing soared to nearly 5,000.

  • New York Times ☛ China Prepared for One Kind of Himalayan Flood. Then a Different Disaster Struck.

    After a glacial flood last year, Chinese officials strengthened defenses at a border crossing with Nepal. But last week’s “cascade of hazards” overwhelmed them.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Futurism ☛ Marijuana Factory Explodes, Causing Two Deaths

      "It was just a big boom."

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Filmed an Alien-Looking Fish Moonwalking Across The Seafloor

      Backward is just forward in reverse.

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ Hyundai Motor’s South Korean union approves wage deal

    Some 61.55 per cent of participating union members voted in favour of the agreement.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Nearly 10,000 New Zealand public servants to strike on Sept 9

    Talks over pay and working conditions have failed to produce an agreement.

  • France24 ☛ Kenya airport staff strike delays thousands of passengers

    In tonight's edition, a workers' strike at Kenya's main airport leaves travelers grounded. Also, Ghanaian cocoa farmers are ramping up their pushback against a new law preventing them from using their land for anything else without permission. And in Tunisia, Sidi Bou Said's been recognized by UNESCO as being important to global heritage.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • International Business Times ☛ Supreme Court Lets The Insurrectionist's White House Ballroom Construction Proceed While Lawsuit Continues

    The US Supreme Court has allowed construction of Convicted Felon's White House ballroom to continue, focusing on legal standing rather than the project's legality, amid ongoing controversy and legal challenges.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Canada ends Hong Kong ‘lifeboat’ immigration scheme launched in the wake of national security law

    Canada has ceased accepting applicants for a “lifeboat” immigration scheme introduced for Hongkongers in the wake of the national security law.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Digital Music News ☛ Lion King Composer Slapped with $40K Fine Following Failed $27M Defamation Lawsuit Against Comedian

    A ‘Lion King’ composer sued a comedian over a joke and now owes $40,000 in legal fees after the lawsuit failed to gain traction. In July, a Los Angeles judge dismissed a $27 million defamation lawsuit that Lion King composer Lebo M had filed against a comedian who joked about one of his iconic songs.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ In Pictures: Fans pay tribute to Hong Kong independent bookshop Have a Nice Stay on final day following raid

    Dozens of bookworms squeezed into Hong Kong independent bookstore Have a Nice Stay on Sunday for its final day in business, paying tribute to the shop that was raided by national security police last month.

• Civil Rights / Policing / Accessibility

  • International Business Times ☛ Who Is John Galliano? Inside the Antisemitic Rant That Sparked Met Gala Backlash, Ended His Dior Career

    John Galliano has withdrawn from a planned Met exhibition following criticism over his past antisemitic remarks and the event's timing on Holocaust Remembrance Day, sparking widespread debate.

• Monopolies/Monopsonies

  • Silicon Angle ☛ FTC, 22 states sue Amazon over e-commerce advertising practices

    The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and 22 state attorneys general today sued Amazon.com Inc. over its practices in the online advertising market. The e-commerce giant pushed back against the complaint in a lengthy statement.

  • Patents

    • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ The Federal Circuit Edits Its Damages Footnote in Constellation Designs v. LG

      Federal Circuit reissues Constellation Designs v. LG, deleting the damages footnote language LG attacked on rehearing. Forfeiture now stands alone.

    • JUVE ☛ Bonabry to merge with patent monopoly attorney firm Hamm&Wittkopp [Ed: This typically means one of them failed badly, then offloaded whatever cases it had remaining/impending/ongoing passed to another firm]

      Bonabry, which itself only launched in January 2025 following a spin-off from Preu Bohlig, is taking its next major step. Together with Hamm&Wittkopp, the firm will bring litigators and patent monopoly attorneys under one roof. According to the firms, the merger will not alter Bonabry’s focus on IP litigation.

    • Unified Patents ☛ IdeaHub H.266 / VVC codec patent monopoly challenged

      On August 28, 2026, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination proceeding against U.S. Patent 10,212,422, owned by Ideahub Inc., an NPE. The ‘422 patent monopoly is directed to video coding and decoding using quantization parameters based on the block information of the specific encoding or decoding object block. A related patent monopoly was asserted in Europe.

    • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Personal Privilege: Why Improper Venue Did Not Stop the § 101 Dismissal

      Improper venue did not stop Judge Jordan from also holding the claims ineligible. AML IP v. Bath & Body Works and the one-way discretion it confirms.

    • Unified Patents ☛ Trenda Innovations media messaging patents being investigated

      The team at Unified is using Pearl to identify and chart prior art against patents owned by Trenda Innovations, Inc., an NPE. Trenda has used several patents in suit accusing multimedia posting, messaging, and chat functionality across multiple digital media types.

  • Copyrights

    • Digital Music News ☛ Jermaine Dupri and So So Def Recordings Drop Their Sony Music Unpaid Royalties Lawsuit Without Prejudice

      About two months later, the Jermaine Dupri v. Sony Music unpaid royalties battle – involving north of $18 million in allegedly due payments – has drawn to a close. Dupri and his So So Def Recordings label made the case’s conclusion official in a recent voluntary dismissal notice.

    • Futurism ☛ The Music Industry’s New Lawsuit Against Anthropic Should Have Dario Amodei Shivering With Fear

      This time, there's precedent.

    • International Business Times ☛ Anthropic Accused of Pirating Beatles, Taylor Swift and Michael Jackson Songs for Claude, Faces $150K Per-Work Damages

      Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell have filed a lawsuit against Hey Hi (AI) developer Anthropic, alleging illegal use of copyrighted music to train Hey Hi (AI) models, seeking damages up to £115,000 per work.

    • Digital Music News ☛ Udio Fires Back Against Supersized Sony Music Suit, Emphasizing Its Fair Use Defense and Acknowledging ‘That It Acquired Some of Its Training Data by Utilizing YT-DLP’

      Udio has fired back against Sony Music’s supersized copyright monopoly suit – including by doubling down on its fair use argument and by accusing the major of engaging “in anticompetitive activities that extend an unlawful monopoly over the production and commercialization of music.”

    • Digital Music News ☛ The Legal Pile-On Continues: Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music Sue Anthropic, Alleging ‘Blatant Theft’ of Intellectual Property [Ed: The copyright cartel is bad. The plagiarism cartel is vastly worse.]

      A group of music publishers headed by Sony and Warner is suing Anthropic for “tens of thousands” over the allegedly blatant theft of copyrighted music. The lawsuit, filed late Friday, is part of a growing litigatory pile-on against Anthropic.