Crooked Bough News Round-up

+ Sharks and rays gain landmark protections as nations move to curb international trade—Gov'ts agree to ban or restrict international trade in shark meat, fin...

+ Scientists built an AI co-pilot for prosthetic bionic hands—Managing each finger separately can, with the right sensors, ease cont...

+ Investors commit quarter-billion dollars to startup designing “Giga” satellites—"If we build these platforms well, we get to ask new questions about w...

+ Ars Live: 3 former CDC leaders detail impacts of RFK Jr.’s anti-science agenda—Join us Tuesday, December 16, at 2 pm ET to hear from leaders who resi...

+ No sterile neutrinos after all, say MicroBooNE physicists—There's a less than 5 percent chance that earlier anomalies can be exp...

+ NASA just lost contact with a Mars orbiter, and will soon lose another one—If NASA is serious about exploring Mars, it's past time to send new mi...

+ This is the oldest evidence of people starting fires—We didn't start the fire. (Neanderthals did, at least 400,000 years ag...

+ Court: “Because Trump said to” may not be a legally valid defense—The "arbitrary and capricious" standard strikes down another administr...

+ Brazil weakens Amazon protections days after COP30—Backed by powerful corporations, nations are giving public false choic...

+ Pompeii construction site confirms recipe for Roman concrete—Latest results from a recently discovered ancient Roman construction s...

+ Why is my dog like this? Current DNA tests won’t explain it to you.—Dog behavior is a lot more complicated than any one gene variant. [Cat...

+ A massive, Chinese-backed port could push the Amazon Rainforest over the edge—The port will revolutionize global trade, but it’s sparking destructiv...

+ Rare set of varied factors triggered Black Death—Volcanic eruptions in the mid-1340s triggered a chain of events that b...

+ New report warns of critical climate risks in Arab region—Foundations of daily life are being pushed to the brink by human-cause...

+ Rocket Report: Blunder at Baikonur; do launchers really need rocket engines?—The Department of the Air Force approves a new home in Florida for Spa...

+ Researchers find what makes AI chatbots politically persuasive—A massive study of political persuasion shows AIs have, at best, a wea...

+ Welcome to “necroprinting”—3D printer nozzle made from mosquito’s proboscis—They're quite a bit cheaper than manufactured nozzles if you can disse...

+ A fentanyl vaccine is about to get its first major test—Vaccine trial in the Netherlands hopes to protect against fentanyl-rel...

+ 12 former FDA chiefs unite to say agency memo on vaccines is deeply stupid—Prasad's arguments "misrepresent both the science and the regulatory r...

+ Humans in southern Africa were an isolated population until recently—A distinct population that was isolated until the last thousand years ...

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As of 12/14/25 3:56am. Last new 12/13/25 5:56am.

+ OpenAI built an AI coding agent and uses it to improve the agent itself—"The vast majority of Codex is built by Codex," OpenAI told us about i...

+ OpenAI releases GPT-5.2 after “code red” Google threat alert—Company claims new AI model tops Gemini and matches humans on 70% of w...

+ Disney invests $1 billion in OpenAI, licenses 200 characters for AI video app Sora—Three-year deal lets users create AI videos of Mickey Mouse, Darth Vad...

+ Oracle shares slide on $15B increase in data center spending—Company raises its capital expenditure forecast as it doubles down on ...

+ A new open-weights AI coding model is closing in on proprietary options—Devstral 2 model scores 72% on industry benchmark, nearing proprietary...

+ Operation Bluebird wants to relaunch “Twitter,” says Musk abandoned the name and logo—“Abandonment” offers rare chance to reclaim one of tech’s most recogni...

+ Meta offers EU users ad-light option in push to end investigation—Facebook agrees to change "pay or consent" model after talks with Euro...

+ In comedy of errors, men accused of wiping gov databases turned to an AI tool—Defendants were convicted of similar crimes a decade ago. How were the...

+ Admins and defenders gird themselves against maximum-severity server vuln—Open source React executes malicious code with malformed HTML—no authe...

+ Microsoft drops AI sales targets in half after salespeople miss their quotas—Report: Microsoft declared "the era of AI agents" in May, but enterpri...

+ Fraudulent gambling network may actually be something more nefarious—Researchers say there's more to the network, which has operated for 14...

+ OpenAI CEO declares “code red” as Gemini gains 200 million users in 3 months—Three years after Google sounded alarm bells over ChatGPT, the tables ...

+ Syntax hacking: Researchers discover sentence structure can bypass AI safety rules—New research offers clues about why some prompt injection attacks may ...

+ HP plans to save millions by laying off thousands, ramping up AI use—Product development, internal operations among teams expected to be hi...

+ Crypto hoarders dump tokens as shares tumble—Several companies are selling crypto stockpiles in effort to fund shar...

+ UK government will buy tech to boost AI sector in $130M growth push—Plan will offer guaranteed payments for British startups making AI har...

+ Oops. Cryptographers cancel election results after losing decryption key.—Voting system required three keys. One of them has been "irretrievably...

+ How to know if your Asus router is one of thousands hacked by China-state hackers—So far, the hackers are laying low, likely for later use. [Category: B...

+ Google tells employees it must double capacity every 6 months to meet AI demand—Google's AI infrastructure chief tells staff it needs thousandfold cap...

+ HP and Dell disable HEVC support built into their laptops’ CPUs—HEVC licensing gets more expensive in January. [Category: Biz & IT...

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As of 12/14/25 3:56am. Last new 12/12/25 5:04pm.

+ Streisand effect: Businesses that pay ransomware gangs are more likely to hit the headlines—Research by ransomware expert Max Smeets suggests companies that pay u...

+ Trump plans bonfire of US state-level AI regulation—US president’s executive order targets state-level AI regulatory frame...

+ Quantum risk to quantum readiness: A PQC roadmap—No one knows exactly when quantum computing will arrive, but accelerat...

+ What lies in store for cyber security skills in 2026?—As we prepare to close out 2025, the Computer Weekly Security Think Ta...

+ Microsoft expands bug bounty scheme to include third-party software—The company is to offer bug bounty awards for people who report securi...

+ Microsoft expands Bug Bounty scheme to include third-party software—The company is to offer bug bounty awards for people who report securi...

+ Security pros should prepare for tough questions on AI in 2026—As we prepare to close out 2025, the Computer Weekly Security Think Ta...

+ Microsoft patched over 1,100 CVEs in 2025—The final Patch Tuesday update of the year brings 56 new CVEs, bringin...

+ Are we mistaking regulation for resilience?—We have a growing number of cyber compliance regulations, yet our coun...

+ Why bug bounty schemes have not led to secure software—Computer Weekly speaks to Katie Moussouris, security entrepreneur and ...

+ Ethical hackers can be heroes: It's time for the law to catch up—The UK government's plan to finally rewrite the 1990 Computer Misuse A...

+ NCSC warns of confusion over true nature of AI prompt injection—Malicious prompt injections to manipulate GenAI large language models ...

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As of 12/14/25 3:56am. Last new 12/12/25 11:36am.

+ Need For Speed Map IRL—When driving around in video games, whether racing games like Mario Ka...

+ Why Games Work, and How to Build Them—Most humans like games. But what are games, exactly? Not in a philosop...

+ Watch a Recording Lathe From 1958 Cut a Lacquer Master Record—Most of us are familiar with vinyl LPs, and even with the way in which...

+ Mentra Brings Open Smart Glasses OS With Cross-Compat—There are a few very different pathways to building a product, and we ...

+ Condensing Diesel Heater Hack Is Dripping With Efficiency—Not a huge percentage of our readers probably get their heat from dies...

+ Get Statistical About Your Pet With This Cat Tracking Dashboard—Cats can be wonderful companions, but they can also be aloof and borin...

+ User Serviceable Parts—Al and I were talking on the podcast about the Home Assistant home aut...

+ Biohack Your Way To Lactose Tolerance (Through Suffering)—A significant fraction of people cant handle lactose, like [HGModernis...

+ PJON, Open Single-Wire Bus Protocol, Goes Verilog—Did OneWire of DS18B20 sensor fame ever fascinate you in its single-da...

+ The Near Space Adventures of Bradfield the Bear—Admit it or not, you probably have a teddy bear somewhere in your past...

+ Super-Sizing Insects and the Benefits of Bones—Have you ever found yourself looking at the insects of the Paleozoic e...

+ Liberating AirPods with Bluetooth Spoofing—Apple’s AirPods can pair with their competitors’ devices and work as b...

+ Hidden Camera Build Proves You Can’t Trust Walnuts—Typically, if you happened across a walnut lying about, you might cons...

+ Rats Get even Better at Playing DOOM—We all know that you can play DOOM on nearly anything, but what about ...

+ Review: Cherry G84-4100 Keyboard—The choice of a good keyboard is something which consumes a lot of tim...

+ Hackaday Podcast Episode 349: Clocks, AI, and a New 3D Printer Guy—Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Al Williams met up to cover the b...

+ Weird Email Appliance Becomes AI Terminal—The Landel Mailbug was a weird little thing. It combined a keyboard an...

+ This Week in Security: Hornet, Gogs, and Blinkenlights—Microsoft has published a patch-set for the Linux kernel, proposing th...

+ NASA May Have Lost the MAVEN Mars Orbiter—When the orbit of NASAs Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN)...

+ Consider This Pocket Machine For Your iPhone Backups—What if you find yourself as an iPhone owner, desiring a local backup ...

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As of 12/14/25 3:56am. Last new 12/14/25 3:18am.

+ This Week In Techdirt History: December 7th – 13th—Five Years Ago This week in 2020, the ACLU told congress not to add a ...

+ The Measles Outbreak In South Carolina Is Growing—Im certain some people are getting tired of this refrain, but Im going...

+ How Cops Are Using Flock Safety’s ALPR Network To Surveil Protesters And Activists—Its no secret that 2025 has given Americans plenty ...

+ Trump Pretends To Block State AI Laws; Media Pretends That’s Legal—The mainstream media just failed a basic civics test so badly that you...

+ Rep. Green Again Pounds The Drum On Impeachment, And This Time A Majority Of Democrats March To The Beat—This week Representative Al Green (Texas) filed another set of impeach...

+ Daily Deal: 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Pad—This 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Pad integrates three charging m...

+ India’s Government Rolls Back Invasive Cell Phone Tracking Mandate 48 Hours After Issuing It—The government of India especially under Prime Minister Narendra Modi...

+ Politico’s Union Journalists Win Key Ruling In Battle Against Lazy, Undercooked AI—The rushed integration of half-cooked automation into the already brok...

+ Finally: Rep. Haley Stevens Files Articles Of Impeachment For RFK Jr.—Weve obviously done a ton of coverage on RFK Jr. as the head of Health...

+ Ctrl-Alt-Speech: Censors & Sensibility—Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast about the latest news in online sp...

+ ChatGPT Is Pitching In To Help Federal Officers Misrepresent Confrontations With Protesters—Weve already written several times about the danger posed by adding AI...

+ Pebble’s Original Creator Creates An Open Source $99 Voice Recorder Ring You Can Hack—Eric Migicovsky, who basically invented the smartwatch category with t...

+ RePebble Creates An Open Source $99 Voice Recorder Ring You Can Hack—Eric Migicovsky, who basically invented the smartwatch category with t...

+ Daily Deal: SunFounder GalaxyRVR Mars Rover Kit for Arduino—The SunFounder GalaxyRVR Mars Rover Kit is your gateway to hands-on le...

+ ICE Deports Man To Guatemala, Blowing Off Ruling That Said He Was Likely To Be Tortured There—ICE continues to be increasingly awful as it chases arrest and deporta...

+ Our Corrupt Congress Just Quietly Killed Military Right To Repair Reforms—Weve covered how theres a real push afoot to implement state...

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As of 12/14/25 3:56am. Last new 12/13/25 2:53pm.

+ The Mantis Beings: Guardians, Overlords, or Earthly Teachers?—The mysterious Mantis Beings: alien overlords or earthly teachers? Exp...

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As of 12/14/25 3:56am. Last new 12/14/25 2:35am.

+ On This Day, Dec. 14: Dozens killed in Sandy Hook massacre—On Dec. 14, 2012, a gunman killed 27 people, including 20 children at ...

+ 2 dead, 8 injured in Brown University mass shooting—A suspect is at large after killing two and wounding eight others duri...

+ 2 dead, 8 injured, in Brown University mass shooting—A suspect is at large after killing two and wounding eight others duri...

+ Cambodia closes Thai border crossings amid ongoing fighting—Cambodian officials closed all border crossings from Thailand as fight...

+ Gunman kills three Americans in Syria; Trump promises retaliation—Two members of the U.S. Army and a civilian interpreter were killed, w...

+ Oil tanker warrant unsealed; Cuba denounces seizure—U.S. officials unsealed the warrant issued for the seizure of the shad...

+ Israel announces deadly strike on senior Hamas commander Raed Saad—Israel Defense Forces targeted and killed senior Hamas commander Raed ...

+ Gunman kills three Americans in Syria—Two members of the U.S. Army and a civilian interpreter were killed, w...

+ Belarus releases 123 political prisoners after U.S. eases sanctions—President Donald Trump on Saturday ended U.S. sanctions on potash fert...

+ On This Day, Dec. 13: U.S. troops capture Saddam Hussein—On Dec. 13, 2003, Saddam Hussein, the deposed Iraqi president, was cap...

+ Florida Goodwill store evacuated after live grenade donated—Workers at a Goodwill store in Palatka, Fla., found a live grenade in ...

+ Military's V-22 Osprey aircraft problems persist, GAO finds—The V-22 Osprey is a highly versatile aircraft that experienced a sign...

+ King Charles III reports progress in personal cancer fight—Britain's King Charles III is making good progress in his personal fig...

+ Russian Central Bank sues Belgian bank over frozen funds—Russia's Central Bank filed suit against a Belgian bank that has about...

+ Southern Command leader Adm. Alvin Holsey relinquishes command—U.S. Southern Command leader Adm. Alvin Holsey relinquished his comman...

+ El Salvador to introduce Grok tutoring in public schools—El Salvador announced it has reached an agreement with Elon Musk's xAI...

+ National Trust files suit against Trump to stop ballroom construction—The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit against t...

+ Trump aims to reform federal cannabis law—President Donald Trump has voiced support for reclassifying cannabis a...

+ House Oversight Democrats release new cache of Epstein photos—Democrats from the House Oversight Committee released new photos Frida...

+ Pope Leo XIV urges Italy's spy agency to prioritize peace, human dignity—Pope Leo XIV marked the centenary of Italy's Security Intelligence Sys...

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As of 12/14/25 3:56am. Last new 12/14/25 1:58am.

+ Is Your Vibrator Spying on You?—Here’s everything you need to know about data privacy in sex toys and ...

+ Alpine A390 Review: Price, Specs, Availability—Ahead of its entry into the US, the European brand with an ex-Ferrari ...

+ For the First Time, AI Analyzes Language as Well as a Human Expert—If language is what makes us human, what does it mean now that large l...

+ 18 Gifts for People Who Are Perpetually Cold (2025)—From a backyard hot tub to the warmest slippers, these picks will make...

+ The Best Motorola Phones (2025), Tested and Reviewed—Motorola phones may seem old-school, but their reasonable prices, colo...

+ The Best Kindle of 2025: Paperwhite, Scribe, or Colorsoft?—Here’s how Amazon’s ebook readers stack up—and which one might be righ...

+ Google Data Centers Are Returning Nuclear Power to Tornado Country—A destructive storm in 2020 prematurely shut down Iowa’s only nuclear ...

+ The 24 Best Shows on Amazon Prime, WIRED’s Picks (December 2025)—Bat-Fam, The Girlfriend, and The Mighty Nein are just a few of the sho...

+ Velotric Discover 2 Electric Bike Review: Versatile and Powerful—This laid-back ride comes with an almost bewildering array of power mo...

+ AI Toys for Kids Talk About Sex, Drugs, and Chinese Propaganda—Plus: Travelers to the US may have to hand over five years of social m...

+ Gear News of the Week: Android Gets Emergency Live Video, and the Pixel Watch 4 Supports Gestures—Plus: Apple Fitness+ expands to new markets, it’s even easier to add p...

+ How to Use Smart Lighting Around the Home: Reviewer Recommendations—I’ve been reviewing smart lighting for years. Here are tips on how to ...

+ The Instagram-Fueled Boom in Copycat Vintage Car-Body Shells—Instagram is awash with Asian firms showing how they can remake old Br...

+ AMD CEO Lisa Su Isn’t Afraid of the Competition—In this episode of Uncanny Valley we take you through our recent conve...

+ Why SpaceX Is Finally Gearing Up to Go Public—Like so many things in Elon Musk's orbit, a lot of it may come down to...

+ This Group Pays Bounties to Repair Broken Devices—Even If the Fix Breaks the Law—Fulu sets repair bounties on consumer products that employ sneaky feat...

+ You’re Thinking About AI and Water All Wrong—Fears about AI data centers’ water use have exploded. Experts say the ...

+ The Best Age-Tech Gadgets Tried and Tested by WIRED—As more and more age tech hits the market, I’ve been testing the most ...

+ The Best Permanent Outdoor Lights (2025): Govee, Eufy, Lepro—DIY permanent eave lights that attach to the exterior of your home are...

+ Best Merino Wool T-Shirts (2025), Tried On and Tested—These merino wool T-shirts are the last shirt you’ll ever wear. I’m we...

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As of 12/14/25 3:56am. Last new 12/14/25 3:56am.