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Submission + - The plans to turn Europe into a new superpower (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: Donald Trump’s threats over Greenland have exposed Europe’s weakness. Russia’s Vladimir Putin is waging war on its eastern flank. China’s Xi Jinping is a relentless competitor.

In a brutal new age of world powers, the EU wants to build a bigger, richer, stronger “super Europe” that is able to resist the dangerous whims of the globe’s autocrats.

Turning 27 quarrelsome small and middle-sized powers into a geopolitical heavyweight has been Emmanuel Macron’s largely unheeded call ever since the US president’s first term.

“Let’s take a step back and realise we live in a world where the leader of the free world is willing to upend the Western alliance over something he sees on Fox News,” one EU diplomat said.

Submission + - Trump reveals 'discombobulator' weapon was crucial to Venezuela raid (nypost.com)

Submitted by Tablizer
Tablizer writes: Trump commented on the weapon when asked about reports this month that the Biden administration purchased a pulsed energy device suspected of being the type that caused “Havana Syndrome.”

That revelation followed on-the-ground accounts from Venezuela describing how Maduro’s gunmen were brought to their knees, “bleeding through the nose” and vomiting blood.

A self-identified member of the deposed strongman’s team of guards recounted afterward that “suddenly all our radar systems shut down without any explanation.”...

“At one point, they launched something; I don’t know how to describe it. It was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly I felt like my head was exploding from the inside,” the witness said.

“We all started bleeding from the nose. Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move. We couldn’t even stand up after that sonic weapon — or whatever it was.”

Submission + - New moms' farts may help with postpartum depression, Harvard study says (nypost.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Scientists found that gut bacteria produces gases that create hormones associated with pregnancy and mood regulation — including natural versions of drugs now used to treat postpartum depression, according to a study published in top-tier scientific journal, Cell.

The research adds to the growing list of ways that gut microbiota may influence human biology and health.

The study also provides new evidence that doctors could one day treat or prevent certain kinds of mental health conditions by manipulating gut microbes given the understanding of the so-called gut-brain link — the two-way communication system between the digestive system and brain.

Submission + - Scientists reveal secret of longevity (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: Harvard experts believe the optimal way to extend life is adding more variety to exercise routines.

They tracked more than 111,000 people over more than 30 years, finding that those with the broadest mix of physical activity had an almost 20 per cent lower risk of early death from all causes.

Walking was the single activity associated with the lowest risk of death – 17 per cent lower for those who did the most walking compared with those who did the least.

Submission + - AI-powered "RoboCops" take up traffic duties in Chinese cities (people.cn)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: Donning a police uniform, a reflective vest and a white cap, the robot officer — identified by the badge number "Intelligent Police Unit R001" — looks remarkably human from a distance. Up close, its metallic sleekness and futuristic demeanor have made it a local celebrity, with pedestrians frequently pausing to snap photos of the cyberpunk scene.

"It is a new colleague capable of assisting us effectively," said Jiang Zihao, a traffic police officer in Wuhu. According to Jiang, "Intelligent Police Unit R001," an AI-enabled traffic policing robot, is integrated with the city's traffic signal system. It can execute standard traffic command gestures synchronized with changing lights.

Submission + - 'Just Because Linus Torvalds Vibe Codes Doesn't Mean it's a Good Idea' (theregister.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Vibe coding got a big boost when everyone's favorite open source programmer, Linux's Linus Torvalds, said he'd been using Google's Antigravity LLM on his toy program AudioNoise, which he uses to create "random digital audio effects" using his "random guitar pedal board design." This is not exactly Linux or even Git, his other famous project, in terms of the level of work. Still, many people reacted to Torvalds' vibe coding as "wow!" It's certainly noteworthy, but has the case for vibe coding really changed? [...] It's fun, and for small projects, it's productive. However, today's programs are complex and call upon numerous frameworks and resources. Even if your vibe code works, how do you maintain it? Do you know what's going on inside the code? Chances are you don't. Besides, the LLM you used two weeks ago has been replaced with a new version. The exact same prompts that worked then yield different results today. Come to think of it, it's an LLM. The same prompts and the same LLM will give you different results every time you run it. This is asking for disaster.

Just ask Jason Lemkin. He was the guy who used the vibe coding platform Replit, which went "rogue during a code freeze, shut down, and deleted our entire database." Whoops! Yes, Replit and other dedicated vibe programming AIs, such as Cursor and Windsurf, are improving. I'm not at all sure, though, that they've been able to help with those fundamental problems of being fragile and still cannot scale successfully to the demands of production software. It's much worse than that. Just because a program runs doesn't mean it's good. As Ruth Suehle, President of the Apache Software Foundation, commented recently on LinkedIn, naive vibe coders "only know whether the output works or doesn't and don't have the skills to evaluate it past that. The potential results are horrifying."

Why? In another LinkedIn post, Craig McLuckie, co-founder and CEO of Stacklok, wrote: "Today, when we file something as 'good first issue' and in less than 24 hours get absolutely inundated with low-quality vibe-coded slop that takes time away from doing real work. This pattern of 'turning slop into quality code' through the review process hurts productivity and hurts morale." McLuckie continued: "Code volume is going up, but tensions rise as engineers do the fun work with AI, then push responsibilities onto their team to turn slop into production code through structured review."

Submission + - Video Documents How Autistic Shutdown Is Misread as Death in Emergencies (youtube.com)

Submitted by proyvind
proyvind writes: This video documents an incident at Jernbanetorget (Oslo) on November 24, 2025, where an autistic woman was struck by a subway train during an autistic meltdown.

What followed was not just an emergency response, but a systemic failure.

The footage shows how autistic shutdown—a known neurological state involving immobility, silence, and unresponsiveness—was misinterpreted by authorities as death. At the scene, she was treated as deceased before lifesaving care began. The incident was publicly reported as a suicide attempt while she was still alive.

This is not presented as an isolated mistake.
It shows how autistic shutdown is misread as unresponsiveness or death in emergencies—not as an exception, but as a repeated systemic failure affecting autistic people.

Media coverage focused on traffic disruption, bystanders filming, and operational logistics. The injured person’s condition, disability, and needs were largely absent from reporting. After survival was confirmed, the patient was later denied access to her primary support person during a medically critical recovery phase, despite autism-related needs being time-sensitive and well documented.

The video includes synchronized timestamps, on-scene dialogue, and cross-references to contemporaneous media reports (NRK, Aftenposten, Document.no), allowing viewers to verify the sequence of events themselves.

Background: the author is a long-time open-source contributor in the Mandrake/Mandriva Linux ecosystem, including later project-level coordination and leadership during Mandriva’s final era.

This raises broader questions relevant far beyond Norway:

How emergency protocols handle neurodivergent patients

Whether silence is incorrectly equated with non-viability

How public narratives can prematurely close scrutiny

The situation is ongoing.
The video exists to document what happened—and to make the failure visible.

Video:
https://youtu.be/d17R4vuPHAg

Tags: autism, emergency-response, disability-rights, healthcare, systemic-failure

Submission + - European military personnel arrive in Greenland as Trump says US needs island (bbc.com)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: A small French military contingent has arrived in Greenland's capital Nuuk, officials say, as several European states deploy small numbers in a so-called reconnaissance mission.

The limited deployment, which also involves Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands and the UK, comes as US President Donald Trump continues to press his claim to the Arctic island, which is a semi-autonomous part of Denmark.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the initial contingent would be reinforced soon with "land, air, and sea assets".

Senior diplomat Olivier Poivre d'Arvor saw the mission as sending a strong political signal: "This is a first exercise... we'll show the US that Nato is present."

Comment I recently rejoined the cult (Score 1) 168

by fjo3 (#65896475) Attached to: 'The Cult of Costco'
It became a necessity given the Trump economy, and I am saving a bundle. I am amazed by how cheap a membership is - it paid for itself the first time I went shopping. The only thing I will criticize about Costco: DO NOT order the pizza. Because they never raise food court prices, they have to cut extreme corners on the pizza.

Comment The best will survive (Score 1) 74

In cities with a large enough population (mine is over 500k), independent theaters are doing well. My local theater shows classics from the 1930s onwards, and it has been amazing getting to watch many of my favorite movies on the big screen for the first time! During October they showed Hitchcock masterpieces, as well as my favorite 80s horror film: The Thing. Every time I go, there is a substantial crowd, all of whom behave politely - even those who bought beer or wine at the theater. The interior decor is old and run down, but the seats are nice, the speaker system is much better than mine, and they charge reasonable prices.

Submission + - Young People's Mental Health Is Improving. Tech Alarmists Take Note. (reason.com) 1

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: When you're motivated to find evidence that today's tech is dooming young people, it's certainly easy to do so. But when you consider the totality of the data, the picture becomes much, much more complicated. Suddenly we see evidence that tech may have both negative and positive effects on young people—sometimes simultaneously; that its effects may differ greatly based on individuals' pre-existing circumstances and psychological makeups; that there are at least other plausible explanations for negative developments that many attribute only to technology; and that even where tech usage could credibly be causing damage, the effect sizes are often much smaller than folks make it seem.

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