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A couple of months back, we discussed how screwworm infections had reappeared in Texas for the first time in decades. The foreign surveillance program designed to keep this from occurring in partnership with countries south of the border dissipated after losing funding as a result of the DOGE bros deciding it just wasn't worth it. [...]

A few years ago a California appeals court produced the unfortunate Liapes v. Facebook decision. In this decision, it gave the go-ahead to age discrimination claims under California's Unruh Act resulting from ads not being served to users of certain ages. It's a nonsensical application of anti-discrimination law, because ads are not themselves the goods [...]

Flock Safety has spent a few years building a massive network of ALPR (automated license plate reader) cameras. Flock's cameras are a step ahead of competitors. They not only grab plate/location info, but they provide searchable tags/images that cover everything from car make/model to specific vehicle features. These photos also include images of the drivers [...]

This ruling came out a week and a half ago at this point and I've been so annoyed with it that I kept putting off writing about it, but it's so bad that it requires a discussion. A federal district court in San Jose denied motions from a bunch of the big tech companies seeking [...]

The Complete Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and ESP32 Bundle has 14 courses covering what you need to get started on building out your own smart home. After learning the basics, courses show you how to create a weather monitoring system, a smart home security system, a plant watering system, and more. Courses also cover getting familiar [...]

Two murders in less than a week. That's how the surge went in Minneapolis - a city targeted because the city and state were run by members of the opposing party. It was political persecution pretending to be a public safety effort. Trump and his administration buddies amplified accusations of government funding fraud. Trump himself [...]

The Trump administration's anti-Chinese protectionism is routinely a disastrous, xenophobic mess that mostly just injects chaos, cronyism, and higher prices into U.S. tech markets under the pretense of protecting privacy and national security. All propped up by bumbling Democrats and a corporate press incapable of highlighting that the emperor is buck-ass naked. Four years of [...]

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is MrWilson with a comment about Fauci's Senate hearing and the weaponization of conspiracy theories: The MAGA audience needs its two minutes hate and Fauci is a recurring Emmanuel Goldstein for them to collectively froth at. All the chuds who were upset they couldn't go [...]

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We've talked a great deal about the Stop Killing Games movement and those discussions have typically traveled along two paths of importance. On the one hand, the movement is very important to those of us that care about the preservation of video games. A huge problem with allowing developers and publishers to simply shutdown backend [...]

There have now been dozens of stories of bad lawyers using AI results in filings, most of which show up in the form of fake case citations. That's old hat at this point. But how about prompt injections in court filings? There have been a few people warning that it's coming. A year ago, Louisiana [...]

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast about the latest news in online speech, from Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderations Ben Whitelaw. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice - or go straight to the RSS feed. To get extended episodes with additional coverage, support us on [...]

This is why having a case dismissed with prejudice is important. Trump's cronies/donors - who were paid millions to do a job they'd never done before - failed to bring the Lincoln Reflecting Pool up to spec by July 4th, preventing Trump from taking sole credit for everyone else's hard work while turning the nation's [...]

The Ultimate Unity Game Development Bundle has 44+ hourse of video training designed for aspiring developers. Dive deep into Unity Engine and C# fundamentals, master player physics, and polish your creations with pro-level animations and post-processing. With multi-platform deployment training, it's everything you need to kickstart a portfolio. It's on sale for $25. Note: The [...]

You may have seen news of the recent Fifth Circuit decision, with an opinion written by Judge Andrew Oldham, overturning a lower court ruling, and reinstating highly questionable ID requirements for mail-in ballots. We can debate how this decision blends two great MAGA obsessions, mail-in ballots and voter ID (both overhyped panics designed to suppress [...]

It's always the same routine. Before each giant merger the companies promise that the new combined entity will deliver the sea, moon, and stars. We're told the consolidation will result in untold synergies, massive job growth, and incredible new innovation. Yet in a country too corrupt to have functional antitrust enforcement or working regulators, what [...]

As expected, this didn't take very long. Earlier this week we pointed out that Donald Trump supplanted RFK Jr. as the world's most infamous anti-vaxxer when he vomited out a bonkers executive order that reduced the recommended childhood vaccination schedule for American children, pared down which diseases were recommended for vaccination, and demanded that the [...]

This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article. For decades, terrorism researchers have generally distinguished terrorism from other forms of violence by one defining feature:the intentiontointimidate a wider audiencebeyond immediate victims. That distinction has shaped both academic research andcriminal prosecutions in the U.S.Yetscholars have long debateda deceptively simple question: Is [...]

The administration has no legitimate justification for this action. It's all about inflicting as much literal pain as possible on anyone ICE officers happen to encounter. Immigrationand Customs Enforcement officers may soon be outfitted with gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks intended to gain compliance from combative individuals. ICEplans to spendup to $20 million [...]

It still amazes me that there are people out there who think that Donald Trump is a supporter of free speech. It has never been true. Anyone who looks will note that the Trump administration regularly engages in clearly unconstitutional attempts to suppress speech. But because he and his supporters like to claim he's a [...]

If you're looking for a career in cloud computing, there's no better place to start than with the AWS certification. Whether you want to be an Architect or a Developer, these certifications open doors to incredible opportunities. But how do you get one? You need to use realistic exam simulators that present you with questions [...]

The easiest way to tell that Flock Safety doesn't really care that its massive network of ALPR (automatic license plate reader) cameras is being abused by cops to stalk their exes and harass residents is to judge it by its actions. When confronted with court case after court case detailing these allegations (and those are [...]

One obvious byproduct of letting what's left of U.S. journalism consolidate in the hands of a bunch of giant corporations is the end result winds up being a feckless mess. Generally corporations don't want to upset advertisers, ownership (usually Conservative, white, and male), event sponsors, or potential advertising targets, so their journalism winds up being [...]

The Buc-ee's trademark bullying saga continues! The company, once best known for building ridiculously enormous gas station and convenience store combinations has more recently become nearly as infamous for its bullying and litigious behavior. Buc-ee's has a habit of suing all kinds of other businesses for trademark infringement, so long as those other businesses use [...]

I've been presenting at UC Law San Francisco Lexlab Law and AI certificate program its past several sessions, as well as some law school classes, on whether lawyers' use of AI complies with the rules of professional conduct governing how lawyers must comport themselves or risk losing their licenses. The legal industry is keen to [...]

The reaction to Mark Zuckerberg's 6,500 word AI manifesto, The Future is for Everyone," has been all over the map. Given the messenger and the topic, there's plenty of reasonable skepticism. 404 Media called it deranged." TechCrunch pointed out that Zuck's manifesto is exactly why people don't like AI." But then you have groups like [...]

When Trump FCC Boss Brendan Carr isn't trampling free speech or harassing major networks for platforming comedians, he's been illegally taking a hatchet to whatever's left of media consolidation rules and telecom consumer protection oversight. While he's been pretty effective at this, Carr would find it even easier to convene meetings and hold agency votes [...]

Learn Linux from the ground up. LinuxPath training is a fun and interactive learning platform that lets you experience real-world applications in a highly qualified environment. Immerse yourself in a deep learning experience that increases retention of skills and knowledge, which will ultimately help you succeed on your certification exam. As you progress through the [...]

The current president continues to self-destruct. Fortunately for us, he insists on doing this publicly. After handing a donor and an unproven company the massive job of redoing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in American flag blue" in hopes of being able to use it to celebrate himself during America's 250th birthday, everything went tits [...]

For all the talk of reforming" or repealing" Section 230 in Congress, the fact is that the courts over the past three or four years have effectively chipped away so steadily at the law that it's lost a significant chunk of its usefulness. The latest comes from the Ninth Circuit, which ruled earlier this week [...]

When it comes to the bullshit, batshit-crazy anti-vaxxer movement that currently has the United States in its un-scientific grip, I've focused most of my attention on RFK Jr. And, frankly, for good reason. For arguably decades, but definitely for the last five to ten years, RFK Jr. was the most infamous anti-vaxxer in the world. [...]

Police departments across the country are lining up to launch drone-as-first-responder (DFR) programs, and hundreds have cleared a necessary hurdle toward making deployment a reality, expanding aerial surveillance and data collection even in areas patrol officers typically can't reach. As of February 2026,over 1,000 public safety agencies-including police, fire, and other emergency management agencies-had received [...]

Support us on Patreon If you know anything about Techdirt, you know we're big fans of the EFF and its decades of advocacy for digital rights and the open internet. Recently, the organization went through a big change in the form of a new executive director: legal expert and long-time leader in the space Nicole [...]

For many, many years now we've been calling out how the entire narrative around the censorship industrial complex" was absolute bullshit, made up by a group of either deliberate misinformation peddlers or confused contrarian" journalists too stupid to understand how basic things work. And I say that as someone who has long been critical of [...]

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Will anyone ever hold an ICE officer accountable for shooting or killing someone? Maybe, but it won't be anyone from this administration - one that has actively blocked state investigators from following up on ICE shootings and even pulled FBI agents from ongoing investigations so ICE can forgive itself for its officers actions. While ICE [...]

There have been rumblings for a while that America's richest and most annoying white supremacist, Elon Musk, really wants to get into the wireless phone business. His lobbyists have been making noise in support for broader phone unlocking rules, and there've been several IPO-fluffing press leaks over the last few months indicating they're keen on [...]

This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article. Dr. Anthony Fauciinvoked the Fifth Amendmentanddeclined to answer questionsfrom a Senate committeemore than 100 timeson July 29, 2026. TheRepublican-led hearing- convened to scrutinize Fauci's management of the pandemic and the origins of COVID-19 - was thelatest chapter in a political storythat began [...]

When SpaceX filed for its IPO, we went through the S-1 to point out just how far off the mark Elon Musk's predictions about his Twitter takeover turned out to be. Indeed, the failure of Twitter as a business was so catastrophic, Musk had to hide it by merging all his Xs together: he had [...]

We'll see how long US Attorney (and, of course, former Fox News personality) Jeanine Pirro gets to keep her job. I would guess the exit door is only inches away from hitting her ass since she refused to carry out Donald Trump's plan to punish Reflecting Pool visitors for highlighting the failures of his no-bid [...]

Earlier this year, following the initial verdict in the state of New Mexico's case against Meta (arguing that Meta caused harm to children by doing things like encrypting messages), we noted that even if you believe that Meta is a terrible company (as I do), that Mark Zuckerberg cannot be trusted (ditto), and that the [...]

flowkey is a fun, interactive piano learning platform that helps anyone go from absolute beginner to confident player - at their own pace. It combines step-by-step courses with thousands of songs you know and love, tailored for every skill level, from first-time learners to advanced pianists. The app listens as you play and gives instant [...]

Flock Safety is happy it's the go-to choice for tons of law enforcement agencies. While it does suffer some occasional bleeding, its supercharged automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) - ones that not only capture plates, but pictures of drivers/passengers and full vehicle images to capture any other distinctive features - are so widely deployed they're [...]

There are so many shitty U.S. companies across tech, energy, and AI that criticism of our massively-unpopular telecom monopolies has fallen out of fashion. It's easy to forget, for example, that Comcast routinely used to make headlines for setting peoples homes on fire, torturing pets, or at times killing people (most of the stories I [...]

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Thad with a comment about Capital One's stated reasons for shutting down Trump accounts: Would be nice to have some disclosure laws so that if a presidential candidate's had his bank accounts closed for money laundering, we don't learn about it years later in [...]

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Buc-ee's trademark bullying ways continue! This company that has long been famous for its enormous gas station and convenience stores practically dripping in Americana is quickly building a national reputation for itself as a petulant trademark bully. It's lawsuits are typically dumb and usually feature Buc-ee's claim that it somehow owns every cartoon animal mascot [...]

For years, John Deere had actively made repairing their tractors near-impossible for anyone but itself and the few authorized" repair shops-regardless of the ability of its customers to actually visit such shops. Now, in a major win for farmers and right to repair advocates, John Deere must soon provide farmers with not just the tools [...]

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast about the latest news in online speech, from Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderations Ben Whitelaw. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice - or go straight to the RSS feed. To get extended episodes with additional coverage, support us on [...]

Well, it looks like investigators better go back to doing actual investigations in the Fifth Circuit, rather than just assuming a little paperwork and a whole lot of assistance from service providers is going to do their work for them. For at least the second time in the same state (Mississippi), federal judges have rejected [...]