P
"Bose open-sources its SoundTouch home theater smart speakers ahead of end-of-life."
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/bose-open-sources-its-soundtouch-home-theater-smart-speakers-ahead-of-eol/
Kudos to #Bose for doing this. I've often called on companies to open the code to products they've decided to lay down or stop supporting. If any have actually done it, I haven't noticed. (Apologies to those I might be overlooking!) I hope this move is widely imitated.
"Trump says U.S. will intervene if #Iran kills peaceful protesters."
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/trump-us-intervene-iran-kills-protesters-economic-unrest-rcna251875
But not in the US.
Update. Yesterday's #ICE killing of #ReneeNicoleGood is getting massive public attention because it was recorded.
Please bring your phone to demonstrations!
Here's some advice on reducing the risks.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2020/06/tactics-to-secure-phone-before-a-protest/
Do worry about the risks, but don't forget the risks of leaving law-enforcement violence unrecorded.
"Congress set to reject Trump’s major budget cuts to NSF, NASA, and energy science."
https://www.science.org/content/article/congress-set-reject-trump-s-major-budget-cuts-nsf-nasa-and-energy-science
"The U.S. Congress has delivered another rebuke of President Donald Trump’s plans to slash this year’s budgets of several science agencies. Today, lawmakers hammering out final bills covering the National Science Foundation (#NSF), #NASA science, and Department of Energy (#DOE) research programs unveiled an agreement to spend very close to current levels."
#DefendResearch #Funding #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics
Excellent argument from @pluralistic.
https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/01/39c3/#the-new-coalition
"Thanks to Trump's incontinent belligerence, we are on the cusp of a 'Post-American Internet,' a new digital nervous system for the 21st century. An internet that we can build without worrying about America's demands and priorities…The US trade representative has forced every one of its trading partners to adopt #anticircumvention law, to facilitate the extraction of their own people's data and money by American firms…But there's a…response… that's just sitting there, begging to be tried: what about repealing anticircumvention law?"
#Copyright #DRM #RightToRepair #TPM #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics #USTR
"Trump Can’t Cap Overhead Rate on #NIH Grants to Research Universities, Appeals Court Rules."
https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/the-trump-agenda/trump-cant-cap-overhead-rate-on-nih-grants-to-research-universities-appeals-court-rules
(#paywalled)
"A federal appeals court on Monday ruled that the National Institutes of Health cannot unilaterally cap the indirect-cost rate on its grants at 15 percent, continuing a freeze on the controversial policy change that would cost universities billions."
#Academia #AcademicMastodon #Funding #Trump #Universities #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics
Update. "Filming #ICE agents is a #FirstAmendment right. So why might it land you in jail?"
https://san.com/cc/filming-ice-agents-is-a-first-amendment-right-so-why-might-it-land-you-in-jail/
#DHS says filming law enforcement intrinsically hinders law enforcement. #KristiNoem even calls it "violence" against officers. If true, it would fall into the "interference" exception SCOTUS recognized in Glik v. Cuniffe (2011).
But when DHS and Noem press their absurd claims in court, they lose. "In the ongoing legal battles about whether or not people can legally film ICE activity in public, at least seven federal courts have ruled that it is a First Amendment right to record law enforcement agents in public."
Update. Watch this division within the #Trump admin. (1) The Trump #EPA still considers #glyphosate to be safe for humans. "An EPA spokesman…said the agency was aware of the article’s #retraction [and] said the EPA’s assessment of glyphosate’s risks had not relied solely on the study." (2) But the Make America Healthy Again [#MAHA] movement led by #RFKJr wants to ban glyphosate. RFKJr "once served as co-counsel in a lawsuit against #Monsanto over exposure to #Roundup."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/climate/glyphosate-roundup-retracted-study.html
"Justice Department Says Filming Immigration Raids Is 'Domestic Terrorism'."
https://reason.com/2025/12/26/justice-department-says-filming-immigration-raids-is-domestic-terrorism/
This is the best evidence yet that the #Trump admin is turning the term "domestic terrorism" into an all-purpose pejorative for whatever it dislikes.
Three quick legal notes:
1. In the US, it is not a crime to video police making arrests, provided one does not interfere with their work. So said #SCOTUS in Glik v. Cunniffe (2011).
2. If an act is not already a crime, then even a high-level decision to call it "domestic terrorism" does not make it a crime.
3. Making an act a crime requires legislation (yea, constitutional legislation). In a country with no kings, an executive diktat does not suffice.
#EmptySignifier #FloatingSignifier #FirstAmendment #Terrorism #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics
#Elsevier finally (after 25 years) retracted the primary study concluding that #glyphosate is safe for humans. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in the #Roundup herbicide, manufactured by #Monsanto.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0273230099913715
h/t @civodul.
https://fediscience.org/@civodul@toot.aquilenet.fr/115661046263238211
Among the grounds for the retraction:
* "The article's conclusions…are solely based on unpublished studies from Monsanto."
* "Employees of Monsanto may have contributed to the writing of the article without proper acknowledgment as co-authors."
* "The authors may have received [undisclosed] financial compensation from Monsanto for their work on this article."
Remember that in 2020, the #Trump #EPA "relied almost entirely on #Monsanto studies" to conclude that Roundup was safe.
https://x.com/petersuber/status/1224039859272212480
In 2016, Monsanto made a show of sharing its research on glyphosate with the public. But instead of making it #OpenAccess, it put print copies in a room in Brussels, required registration to use the room, and then closed the room after two months.
https://web.archive.org/web/20190119214350/https://plus.google.com/+PeterSuber/posts/ioy1fVqaLy1
Two questions for follow up studies:
1. Why did Elsevier's 𝘙𝘦𝘨𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘛𝘰𝘹𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘗𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 need 25 years to retract this piece of Monsanto advertising?
2. What harm did the article cause during the last 25 years?