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Comment Good (Score -1, Troll) 15

by fjo3 (#66226180) Attached to: Research Universities Are Admitting Fewer PhDs, a Bad Sign For Science
"A reduction in doctoral students could mean fewer scholars at universities to teach and mentor undergraduates" We have too many undergrads who don't belong at universities. People who do not read. It's not entirely their fault. No Child Left Behind, Covid, grade inflation, and other factors have given them a very poor K-12 education. Even if they graduate from a university, there are few to no jobs waiting for them that they could not have had without accumulating soul-crushing debt. The degree is barely worth the paper it is printed on these days.

Submission + - Scientists Built Cancer Kill Switch That Turns On With Flash of Light (studyfinds.com)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: Cancer has a dirty trick: it can put itself to sleep. When tumor cells slip into a kind of biological hibernation, they become hard to kill, shrugging off treatment and lying low until conditions improve, then waking up and bringing the disease back. For decades, researchers have struggled to shut down this hiding strategy without causing serious harm elsewhere in the body. A team in Switzerland has now built a molecule that flips on and off with flashes of light, giving scientists a precise new way to probe, and possibly disrupt, the way sleeping cancer cells hide.

Behind this cellular sleep state, at least in certain cancers, sits a protein called the glucocorticoid receptor, a sensor inside cells that reacts to stress hormones. When it switches on, it can push cancer cells, especially in some solid tumors such as lung cancer, into a drug-resistant, dormant state. The obvious fix would be to destroy the receptor outright, but there is a catch: the same receptor does important jobs all over the body, including calming inflammation. Removing it everywhere would cause real damage. What was needed was a way to hit the receptor inside a tumor and leave the rest of the body alone.

Submission + - College Students Are Testing at the Level of 10-Year-Olds (futurism.com) 1

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: According to a new “Survey of Adult Skills” conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development — a forum for 38 high-income, predominantly Western countries — a not insignificant number of adult students enrolled in higher education are now reading and doing math at a level which, in a more functional society, would be alarming for a middle schooler.

Submission + - Video Game History Foundation Says Piracy Remains the Only Preservation Method (techspot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Video Game History Foundation founder Frank Cifaldi recently supported claims that piracy is the only effective way to preserve video games. The comments lay the blame squarely on game companies' refusal to keep legacy content available or allow archivists to build legal repositories. Sony's announcement that all PlayStation games will be digital-only from 2028 onward has sparked concern that titles will become harder to preserve and more easily vanish, since the company's servers will become the sole point of distribution. In an official statement, Cifaldi noted that the end of physical PlayStation games has surprisingly little impact on the Foundation's efforts because the majority of games from the last two decades are already digital-only.

According to the Foundation, most games nowadays are not released for consoles, let alone on physical discs. Furthermore, many discs for major titles require downloading updates before they are playable, although the DoesItPlay database reveals that, even today, most are playable offline out of the box. Cifaldi claimed that the true reason piracy remains the best option for preservation is that the Entertainment Software Association, which lobbies for game publishers, has closed off other routes. For example, in 2018, the Association opposed efforts to grant copyright exemptions for museums, libraries, and archives to retain copies of abandoned online games for research.

This is the same organization that recently helped defeat a proposed California bill to preserve premium-priced online-only games by falsely claiming that community servers are illegal. The Foundation accused the ESA of repeatedly blocking attempts by cultural heritage institutions to reform DRM legislation. Cifaldi also described the Library of Congress' outdated software preservation process, which currently only requires tiny snippets of source code. For example, Capcom once asked the Foundation to provide the LoC with "the first and last ten pages of code" for a Mega Man game. Unable to discern where digital records began and ended, the group simply chose random segments. Platform holders' habit of closing online storefronts and removing media from users' accounts is also unhelpful.

Comment Silver linings (Score 2, Insightful) 92

As much of a disaster as the Iran war has been, it seems like this is the final push my fellow American needed to do what should have been done decades ago - reducing CO2 emissions using a combination of green and nuclear energy, while installing home batteries and buying EVs. Still, better late than never.

Submission + - Dopamine websites are the internet's bleakest new obsession (metro.co.uk)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: Essentially, these are fake websites that allow people to chase the dopamine hit they get before making a purchase, be it ordering a takeaway or shopping.

However, the key difference between these and regular websites is that you’re not actually spending any money, and your order will never arrive. The whole experience is gamified from start to finish, allowing you to satisfy your cravings without indulging.

Submission + - Arming civilian vessels a provocation say experts

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Russia accused of ‘crazy new step’ after arming civilian ship with machine guns

* This arming of a civilian vessel is considered a "crazy new step" by geopolitical analysts, indicating a more confrontational stance from Moscow to protect its civilian fleet.

* Experts suggest Russia's actions are a hostile message to EU and NATO nations, aiming to deter any attempts to detain or inspect its ships, contributing to increased lawlessness at sea.

"This is a hostile move by Russia to send a message to EU and Nato nations that it will actively oppose any attempt to detain or inspect its ships," Mr Isik told Reuters. He added: "There is no justification for self defence posture like a machine gun in the Baltic... This clearly shows that the high seas are becoming increasingly lawless."

Submission + - As Elon Musk turns 55, his fortune underscores stark wealth inequality (themirror.com)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: As the U.S. marks a milestone celebration, the Mirror U.S. analyzed Fed data on household wealth distribution since 1990 to put into perspective the direction the country is heading in terms of growing wealth inequality, given that the country has the highest concentration of ultra-high-net-worth individuals globally.

“The fact is that wealth for some and wealth inequality is growing in dimensions that we’ve never seen before,” said Steven Durlauf, the director of the Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility at the University of Chicago.

Submission + - Privacy wins at SCOTUS on geofence warrants (supremecourt.gov)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The case Chatrie v. United States (No. 25-112), decided by the Supreme Court on June 29, 2026, centers on the constitutionality of "geofence warrants" under the Fourth Amendment.

The Background
The case originated from a 2019 armed robbery of a credit union in Midlothian, Virginia. Lacking leads, law enforcement obtained a "geofence warrant" directed at Google. This warrant required Google to provide location data for all mobile devices within a 150-meter radius of the bank during a one-hour window around the time of the robbery.

Through a three-step process, Google provided anonymized data for devices in the area, then narrowed the data to specific users, and finally "de-anonymized" three individuals. Okello Chatrie was one of those individuals, and the resulting location history was used to identify him as the suspect and secure his conviction.

The Supreme Court's Ruling
On June 29, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled (6–3) that the government's use of a geofence warrant to acquire this location data constitutes a "search" under the Fourth Amendment.

Reasonable Expectation of Privacy: Writing for the Court, Justice Elena Kagan held that an individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in their cell phone location information, even when that data is held by a third party like Google.

Rejection of the Third-Party Doctrine: The Court rejected the government's argument that users "voluntarily" shared their location data with Google, noting that modern cell phone use essentially requires this data collection and that such sensitive, detailed tracking creates an expectation of privacy that the Fourth Amendment protects.

The Outcome: By establishing that these actions constitute a search, the Court essentially determined that such warrants must meet constitutional standards of probable cause and particularity. The Court vacated the lower court's decision and remanded the case, instructing the lower courts to determine if the specific warrant in this instance met those Fourth Amendment requirements.

In short, the decision represents a significant victory for privacy advocates, clarifying that the digital "sweeping" of location data through geofence warrants is subject to the same constitutional protections as other government searches.

Submission + - Microsoft fake Windows error ended in a $280 million secret settlement (makeuseof.com)

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: Facing real competition from Digital Research's DR DOS, Microsoft secretly embedded a sabotaging mechanism known as "AARD code" into beta versions of Windows 3.1 to prevent it from running on Digital Research's competing DR DOS operating system.
This code triggered fake, alarming error messages to convince developers that DR DOS was unstable, effectively eliminating a significant market threat through fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Although the company disabled the feature in the final retail release, the California-based firm Caldera, Inc., which had acquired DR DOS assets, sued Microsoft for anti-competitive practices.
Microsoft settled the lawsuit out of court in 2000 for $280 million, a figure that remained sealed until it was unsealed in 2009. Nothing says taking ownership and responsibility than keeping it a sealed secret for a decade. Microsoft paid for being clumsy enough to write the intent down in an email. The lesson the industry took away wasn't "don't do it." It was "don't put it in writing." Something Bill Gates forgot with Epstein.

Submission + - Eighty per cent of Australian children escape social media ban (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: Eight in 10 Australian children are still using social media despite their government’s ban on access to under-16s, research has revealed.

The study, by the University of Newcastle in Australia, suggested there was “insufficient evidence” to show “any substantive effects” on children’s use of social media, more than six months after the ban was introduced in December.

Australian ministers have blamed social media platforms for “systemic breaches” of the ban after the tech companies failed to remove or block children from their sites.

Submission + - France's heat this week was worse than a dire scenario imagined for 2050 (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: The heat on Wednesday alone, when the temperature soared as high as 112.3 degrees Fahrenheit (44.3 degrees Celsius), exceeded the 2050 projections in 19 out of 34 locations across mainland France — far sooner than some may have expected.

Some places surpassed those hypothetical future temperatures by more than 20 degrees Fahrenheit.

It’s part of a dramatic shift in heat wave frequency across the country. Half of the heat waves observed since 1947 have occurred since 2010.

Submission + - Mushroom Behind 'Tiny Human' Visions Lacks Genes For Known Psychedelics (sciencealert.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: When eaten undercooked, the mushroom can produce vivid visions of miniature people â" not unlike Gulliver on his travels to Lilliput.

"Biosynthetic gene mining of the L. asiatica genome found no close hits with any genes known in the production of mushroom psychoactive compounds," write the researchers in their published paper.

"This supports our hypothesis of the presence of a novel unidentified metabolite responsible for the unique hallucinogenic properties of L. asiatica."

Submission + - Europe: The World's Fastest-warming Continent (barrons.com)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: The latest heatwave sweeping across Europe is a stark reminder that it is the world's fastest-warming continent, stretching into an Arctic that is heating at an even greater pace.

Britain, France, Italy and Spain have issued red alerts and health warnings for much of their territory this week as the region endures its second heat episode since May.

Submission + - SPCX Stock Slides Overnight (yahoo.com)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: Shares of SpaceX slid 4% in overnight trading late Sunday after global financial services firm MSCI Inc. assigned the company its lowest ESG rating, placing it among the weakest-rated firms in its coverage universe and prompting a familiar rebuttal from CEO Elon Musk.

SPCX stock fell for a second consecutive session on Thursday after surging to more than 65% above its IPO price during its first week of trading. Investors are also weighing reports that SpaceX is considering a $20 billion bond sale to help fund its rapidly expanding AI and space businesses.

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"The pathology is to want control, not that you ever get it, because of course you never do." -- Gregory Bateson

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