Tootfinder

The fourth #AAS247 press conference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZmP4fC07-Q about The Milky Way and Stellar Explosions covered the paper Resolving the Fe K-alpha Doublet of the Galactic Center Molecular Cloud G0.11-0.11 with XRISM (https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.02482), 25 years of observing the Kepler supernova remnant with Chandra (https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2026/kepler/ and https://chandra.si.edu/press/26_releases/press_010626.html and https://www.nasa.gov/missions/chandra/supernova-remnant-video-from-nasas-chandra-is-decades-in-making/) and the paper Where do stars explode in the ISM? -- The distribution of dense gas around evolved massive stars in M33 (https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.17694 with https://public.nrao.edu/news/stars-that-die-off-the-beaten-path/).

The US military has always had a massive global advantage against enemies by having bases all over the world. There are bases in every NATO country. This would appear to be a powerful threat to anyone willing to oppose American hegemon, and under normal conditions it would be.
But a lot of those kids serving on those bases joined, not because they love America but, because they needed a ticket out of poverty. They joined for the education, for the money, maybe a bit for the adventure, but, more than anything, to escape the ghetto or podunk backwater that trapped them. Under normal times, this is the best deal they could expect. Maybe they risk their lives, usually they sit around being bored for a few years, and they get to come out with respect and paid college.
But what they are being offered is normal in most of the countries they're stationed in. Free healthcare, cheap or free education, is just what citizens in a lot of countries have come to expect. If the US attacked a NATO country, how many would snap up citizenship if they were given a chance to defect? Bonus points for taking some hardware with you, I'm sure.
But there are some who love their country. There are some patriotic Americans on those bases. Some of them joined specifically to protect the US from all enemies, foreign *and* domestic. Given a chance to fulfill that oath or violate international law, what happens?
There are a good number of former military folks too who now are unsafe in the countries they served, who would do just about anything for citizenship in any EU country and almost any NATO ally. Some of those folks know things they swore an oath to never share, but the country they swore an oath to has betrayed them. Today there's no value in leaking those secrets, but in a war between the US and NATO allies things would be different. Some of those former military folks still believe in their oath, and know exactly who the real enemy is. What happens when there's a real threat of war, when they can use their knowledge to fulfill that oath to protect the US against those domestic threats?
There are a bunch of civilian tech workers who have become targets of the regime. Some of them had clearance, or know about the skeletons in the closet. They know about critical infrastructure, classified systems, all sorts of things that would be extremely valuable to an opponent. But the opponents of the US have always been a frightening *other*, never familiar societies these folks look up to, have visited, have thought about moving to, are trying to escape to.
All I'm saying here is that invading Venezuela and kidnapping the president has a very different calculus than does attacking Greenland. I don't know if Trump or his people are able to understand that, but if he and his folks aren't then I hope European leaders are. But more than that, I hope it never comes down to finding out.
But perhaps we should all think about what we would do to make sure things ended quickly if American leadership ever made such an incredible mistake.

Local governments across China are funding dozens of "robot training centers", where human trainers mimic movements like folding clothes to teach the robots (Rest of World)
https://restofworld.org/2026/china-robots-training-centers-workers/

In Chinese data factories, workers teach humanoid robots boring tasks
Local governments are building training centers to address a shortage of robotic data, as China makes embodied intelligence a national priority.

Det kanadensiska samtalet om digital suveränitet är i full fart. Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives skriver under rubriken "Every data centre is a U.S military base".
https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/every-data-centre-is…

In the wake of immigration agents’ killings of three US citizens within a matter of weeks,
the Department of Homeland Security is quietly moving forward with a plan to
expand its capacity for mass detention by using a military contract to create
what Pablo Manríquez, the author of the immigration news site Migrant Insider calls 
“a nationwide ‘ghost network’ of concentration camps.”
On Sunday, Manríquez reported that “a massive Navy contract vehicle,
once v…

US military helping Trump to build massive network of ‘concentration camps,’ Navy contract reveals
The Department of Homeland Security is using a repurposed $55 billion Navy contract to convert warehouses into makeshift jails and plan sprawling tent cities in remote areas.

Contrast-Finder — Find correct color contrasts for web accessibility.
Opensource software and online tool for web accessibility.
There are lot of tools to find a good contrast on the web, but no one to suggest valid contrasts. Contrast-Finder is a tool which computes the contrast between two colors (background, foreground) and checks if the contrast is valid.
🎨

New York lawmakers propose a bill to impose a three-year moratorium on data center development, making NY at least the sixth state to introduce such legislation (Molly Taft/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/new-york-is-the-latest-state-to-consider-a…

New York Is the Latest State to Consider a Data Center Pause
Red and blue states alike have introduced legislation in recent weeks that would halt data center development, citing concerns from climate to high energy prices.

How the huge data center buildout is heating up local politics in US towns across red and blue states on issues like water, electricity, and noise (Evan Halper/Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/01/06/da…

The data center rebellion is here, and it’s reshaping the political landscape
As the buildout of AI infrastructure alarms communities, it is fast emerging as a potent electoral issue across the political divide.

Several of Asia's top tycoons and conglomerates are joining the data center race as tech giants plan $240B in APAC hyperscale expansion over the next five years (Jonathan Burgos/Forbes)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanburgos/2…

The Asian Billionaires Riding The Data Center Boom
The buildout of AI infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific is in high gear. Masayoshi Son and Mukesh Ambani are among the region's wealthiest taking the lead.

Letterboxd plans to launch its Video Store film rental platform on December 10, offering curated indie titles in 23 countries, including the US, UK, and France (Todd Spangler/Variety)
https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/letterboxd-…

Letterboxd Video Store Sets Launch Date With Exclusive Films
Letterboxd Video Store is launching Dec. 10 with films available to rent in 23 countries, including some exclusive indie titles.