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Dive into the world of robotics, programming, and electronics with the PiCar-X, an engaging and versatile smart car designed for learners from elementary school to advanced hobbyists. Combining powerful features, exceptional quality, and a cool design, this robot car kit delivers an engaging learning experience in robotics, AI, and programming. Beyond being an educational tool, […]

If there’s anything the GOP/MAGA party can’t stand, it’s people who won’t fall in line. It openly courts fascism while still pretending its ultimate concern is the protection of (certain) civil liberties. It cheers on politically motivated prosecutions while still making mouth noises about “activist judges.” It’s a land of contrasts, to be sure. But […]

There were rumblings about this for a while, but it looks like the Trump TikTok deal is done, and it’s somehow the worst of all possible outcomes, amazingly making all of the biggest criticisms about TikTok significantly worse. Quite an accomplishment. The Chinese government has signed off on the deal, which involves offloading a large […]

As RFK Jr. continues to dismantle public health in this country policy brick by policy brick, there have fortunately been some consistent sources of sanity for the public to turn to. One of those sources has been the American Academy of Pediatrics, an important organization that provides guidance and dispenses funds to healthcare professionals and […]

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast about the latest news in online speech, from Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderation‘s 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. In the last Ctrl-Alt-Speech of the year, Mike and Ben […]

We filed our own comment with the USPTO regarding their attempt to weaken the important inter partes review (IPR) process that has been hugely helpful in getting rid of bad patents. Over at EFF, Joe Mullin wrote up an analysis of some of the comments to the USPTO, which we’re running here as well. A […]

This story was originally published by ProPublica. Republished under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. On July 18, a mild, overcast night in Nairobi, Kenya, a team of President Donald Trump’s top foreign aid advisers ducked into a meeting room at the Tribe Hotel, their luxury accommodations in the city’s diplomatic quarter, for a private dinner.  The visitors from Washington included […]

FCC boss Brendan Carr was dragged before Congress this week for some light questioning about his repeated, often-illegal abuses of FCC power. It was the first time the FCC has had to appear before Congress in five years, and the questioning, unsurprisingly, mostly dealt with Carr’s failed attempts to censor comedian Jimmy Kimmel for making […]

MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementation of algorithms, creating of user interfaces, and interfacing with programs written in other languages. That’s all well and good, but it means nothing if you don’t have a firm grasp of the data types used within MATLAB. In the Complete MATLAB Programming Master Class, you’ll […]

President Trump, who keeps pretending he’s for free speech, but who has filed more defamation lawsuits against more media organizations than any president in history (combined), has done so again. This time, he has sued the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in Florida (naturally). For context: the only other president to come anywhere close was Teddy […]

Shortly after Netflix announced a $82.7 billion acquisition of Warner Brothers, the Ellison family, alongside Jared Kushner and the Saudis, unveiled their own hostile takeover bid to pre-empt the deal. As we’ve discussed, Larry Ellison is trying to gobble up what’s left of old media (CBS, Paramount, Warner Brothers, CNN) and fuse it with new media […]

I’ve said it roughly a zillion times: trademark bullying exists because it works. One of the unfortunate inequities of our system is that having a large legal warchest simply allows someone to push around others over trademark “concerns” that aren’t valid. The formula for this is consistent. Large corporate interest with lawyers at the ready […]

This story was originally published by ProPublica. Republished under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. The original has additional imagery which is worth checking out as well. On the one-month anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration earlier this year, a group of his appointed aides gathered to celebrate. For four weeks, they had been working overtime to dismantle the U.S. Agency […]

In December 2025, the world crossed a threshold. For the first time ever, access to the major social media platforms was no longer guaranteed by interest, connection, or curiosity — but by a birth date. A new law in Australia decrees that people under 16 may no longer legally hold accounts on major social-media services. […]

Trump was always going to target Minnesota and, specifically, the home of its most liberal residents, Minneapolis. Trump hates the state’s governor, Tim Walz. He also hates one of the state’s congressional reps, Ilhan Omar, who was born in Somalia. This is only part of Trump’s recent hateful statements targeting Somalians, Tim Walz, and Rep. […]

Mastering a new language has never been this fun or effective. Whether you are learning for travel, school, career, or family, Duolingo is the ultimate tool to get you there. Super Duolingo gives you uninterrupted, ad-free learning, unlimited hearts to keep practicing without limits, tailored mistake reviews, access to the toughest legendary levels, and offline […]

Yesterday, Rep. Harriet Hageman released her bill to repeal Section 230. She’s calling it “reform,” but make no mistake—it’s a repeal, and I’ll explain why below. The law turns 30 in February, and there’s a very real chance this could be its last anniversary. Which is why we’re running Techdirt’s fundraising campaign right now, offering […]

We’ve noted how Republicans are rewriting the 2021 infrastructure bill (they voted against) to ensure that billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded broadband grants wind up in the back pocket of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos (and their low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband ventures, Starlink and Project Kuiper). This is billions of taxpayer dollars being paid to billionaires […]

There are lots of good reasons to call for the impeachment or ouster or RFK Jr. He’s flatly unqualified for the role. He’s introducing all kinds of health risks for diseases we shouldn’t even have to worry about any longer because he’s an anti-vaxxer con-artist. He’s so bad at his job that high level administrators […]

This story was originally published by ProPublica. Republished under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. After years of struggling to find enough workers for some of the nation’s toughest lockups, the Federal Bureau of Prisons is facing a new challenge: Corrections officers are jumping ship for more lucrative jobs at Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  This is one of the unintended consequences […]