"Unless you've been living under a rock you've obviously already heard about the newest developments in snail studies"

"The world mourns as the foremost expert on protozoans in central europe transitions to professor emeritus. The world is lesser for this, and we expect all flags to be flown at half mast" [Cues up AI generated mourning song ala "we are Charlie Kirk"]

MAGA’s mission to meddle in European politics should terrify Starmer, Macron and Merz. Will any of them fight back?

Donald Trump has launched a crusade to convert European politics to his cause, mobilizing the full force of American diplomacy to promote “patriotic” parties, stamp on migration, destroy “censorship” and save “civilization” from decay.

The question is whether Europe’s embattled centrists have the power, or the will, to stop him. In its newly released National Security Strategy document, the White House set out for the first time in a comprehensive form its approach to the geopolitical challenges facing the U.S. and the world.

While bringing peace to Ukraine gets a mention, when it comes to Europe, America’s official stance is now that its security depends on shifting the continent’s politics decisively to the right.

MAGA’s mission to meddle in European politics should terrify Starmer, Macron and Merz. Will any of them fight back?

Donald Trump has launched a crusade to convert European politics to his cause, mobilizing the full force of American diplomacy to promote “patriotic” parties, stamp on migration, destroy “censorship” and save “civilization” from decay.

The question is whether Europe’s embattled centrists have the power, or the will, to stop him. In its newly released National Security Strategy document, the White House set out for the first time in a comprehensive form its approach to the geopolitical challenges facing the U.S. and the world.

While bringing peace to Ukraine gets a mention, when it comes to Europe, America’s official stance is now that its security depends on shifting the continent’s politics decisively to the right.

Year in Review.

Including two popes, the Prince of Darkness, and MrBeast.

Wikipedia will mark its 25th anniversary on January 15, 2026. No one could have predicted 25 years ago that Wikipedia would grow into the backbone of knowledge on the internet it is today—powering search engines, voice assistants, and generative AI tools.

Today, nearly 250,000 volunteers generously give their time and energy to update Wikipedia, add citations, build consensus, and more. They keep knowledge human. In 2025, people spent an estimated 2.4 billion hours reading English Wikipedia articles, according to data from the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. The top 20 most-read English Wikipedia articles of 2025 outlined below focus on politics, popular culture, and loss.

Canadian expert David Vigneault warns of China’s ‘industrial-strength’ attempts to steal new technologies

Hostile spy agencies are now as focused on infiltrating western universities and companies as they are on doing so to governments, according to the former head of Canada’s intelligence service.

David Vigneault warned that a recent “industrial-scale” attempt by China to steal new technologies showed the need for increased vigilance from academics.

“The frontline has moved, from being focused on government information to private sector innovation, research innovation and universities,” he told the Guardian in his first interview since leaving the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which is part of the “Five Eyes” intelligence sharing alliance with the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand.

Ukraine’s top commander, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said it would be “unacceptable” for Kyiv to surrender territory in any peace agreement with Russia, warning that Moscow is using ongoing diplomatic talks as “cover” to seize more land by force. 

Speaking to Sky News in an undisclosed location in eastern Ukraine via a translator on Dec. 5, Syrskyi said a "just peace" can only begin with a ceasefire along the current line of contact followed by negotiations.

"Our main mission is to defend our land, our country, and our population," he said. “Naturally, for us it is unacceptable to simply give up territory. What does it even mean – to hand over our land? This is precisely why we are fighting; so we do not give up our territory.”

The US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee voted on Wednesday to advance a bill that would designate all groups affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood "terrorist organisations".

The bill passed the committee with bipartisan support, with Democrats Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Greg Stanton, Jared Moskowitz, Jim Costa, George Latimer, and Brad Schneider joining all the Republicans.

To become law, the bill needs to pass the full House of Representatives and the Senate.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee is led by staunch Israel supporter Brian Mast. The Florida Congressman lost both his legs in Afghanistan after stepping on an improvised explosive device. He later volunteered to serve in the Israeli military and often wears an Israeli army uniform inside Congress.

For those of you who use meds, in particular methylphenidate:

Do you consume caffeine? What's your experience been with it?

More than 60,000 penguins in colonies off the coast of South Africa have starved to death as a result of disappearing sardines, a new paper has found.

More than 95% of the African penguins in two of the most important breeding colonies, on Dassen Island and Robben Island, died between 2004 and 2012. The breeding penguins probably starved to death during the moulting period, according to the paper, which said the climate crisis and overfishing were driving declines.

The losses that researchers recorded in those colonies were not isolated, said the paper, which was published in Ostrich: Journal of African Ornithology. “These declines are mirrored elsewhere,” said Dr Richard Sherley, from the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter. The African penguin species has undergone a population decline of nearly 80% in 30 years.

People in Britain who think they are governed by fools should take a closer look at the Russian and US presidents. Vladimir Putin is systematically ruining his country. His war of choice in Ukraine is an economic, financial, geopolitical and human calamity for Russia that worsens by the day. For his own murky reasons, Donald Trump, another national menace, offered him a lifeline last week. Yet Putin spurned it. These two fools deserve each other.

On the table in Moscow was a “peace” deal that, broadly speaking, rewarded Russia’s aggression by handing over large chunks of Ukrainian land, compromised Kyiv’s independence and weakened its defences against any future attack. The Trump deal, if forced through, would have split the US and Europe; ruptured Nato, perhaps fatally; reprieved Russia’s pariah economy; and probably toppled Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government.

These are key Russian war aims. But Putin, suffering from neo-imperial fantasies and legacy issues, said “no”. He reckons he can get it all, and more, by fighting on. He has persuaded the idiot Trump that Russia’s victory is inevitable – and that scheming Europeans are the real warmongers. Yet his premise is fundamentally flawed. Hard facts confound him. Almost four years on, he’s still trapped in Donbas mud and ice. And at home, things fall apart.

It is a hacker’s dream. Even in the face of repeated warnings to protect online accounts, a new study reveals that “admin” is the most commonly used password in the UK.

The second most popular, “123456”, is also unlikely to keep hackers at bay.

It’s not just a problem here – Australians, Americans and Germans also use “admin” more than any other password when accessing websites, apps and logging in to their computers. Around the world, “123456” emerges as the most popular.

A group of soldiers on Sunday appeared on Benin's state television claiming to have removed President Patrice Talon from office and dissolved all state institutions. Talon's office, meanwhile, said that loyalist forces had managed to get the situation "under control".

The headline here is a bit misleading, what he actually said was:

"Who's to know? [Technology firms] are spending trillions and trillions on AI and maybe it's going to produce the next War and Peace.

"And if people want to read that book, AI-generated or not, we will be selling it - as long as it doesn't pretend to [be] something that it isn't.

"We as booksellers would certainly naturally and instinctively disdain it," Daunt said.

Readers value a connection with the author "that does require a real person", he added. Any AI-generated book would always be clearly labelled as such.

My revised headline is:

Waterstones boss would rather not sell books generated by AI, but might if they are correctly labelled.

computer, please do something

i accidentally your whole hard drive, sir! makes yoriko bleh pose