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Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:Doctors find grey fluid and dead, metallic flesh inside poisoned woman's hip:

mrpg writes:https://www.science.org/content/article/key-arctic-science-outpost-finds-itself-tangled-geopolitical-web[...] The tensions stymieing the UNIS geologists reflect broader changes unfolding across Svalbard, a jagged, ice-cloaked archipelago consisting of nine larger islands and thousands of islets perched between mainland Europe and the North Pole. For centuries the islands, encompassing an area roughly the size of Latvia, were a no-man's land, inhabited mainly by reindeer and polar bears whose ancestors arrived on drifting pack ice. Today, Svalbard has fewer than 3000 human residents but is home to scientific facilities operated by more than a dozen countries, including China, India, and Russia. Many are clustered at Ny-Alesund, a research outpost on the largest island, Spitsbergen, that Norway promotes as a symbol of collaborative Arctic science.Researchers have long journeyed to Svalbard to study everything from glaciers to the northern lights. But in recent years the archipelago has become especially important to science because it provides a front-row seat to some of the fastest warming on Earth; since 1991 the region's mean annual air temperatures have risen at roughly seven times the global rate-and twice the Arctic average.Even as climate change boosts Svalbard's scientific value, however, rising geopolitical tensions in the Arctic are making research more difficult. In its National Threat Assessment for this year, Norway's Police Security Service warned that Svalbard is "especially exposed" to Russian spying, and that "China will try to use research as a gateway to Norwegian territory in the High North."Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:Modula-based source code resurfaces after nearly four decades:

"mrpg" writes:Scientists discover the deep sleep circuit that builds muscle, burns fat, and boosts the brain:

Freeman writes:https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/07/we-cannot-choose-to-become-idiots-the-ai-cheating-scandal-roiling-brown-university/

Rich writes:Chip maker Qualcomm has announced it will acquire software company Modular for $3.9bn in an all share transaction. (https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2026/06/qualcomm-to-acquire-modular) Modular was founded by Chris Lattner, who is best known for the LLVM compiler backend and the invention of the Swift language from Apple. Modular develops a new language called "Mojo", which looks like Python, provides safety guarantees like Rust, and compiles down to highly efficient code to utilize massive parallelism. Mojo targets not only classic CPUs, but can also generate GPU shaders, to cover the full AI stack. It is assumed that Qualcomm will use Modular's offerings to attack Nvidia's proprietary Cuda system to gain traction in the datacenter space.If all goes to plan, and the Qualcomm stock rises to AI bubble levels, Lattner will become the latest tech billionaire through software work alone. If not, he'll just walk away with a few hundred millions. Respect.Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:Ban lands three weeks after Anthropic accused Alibaba's Qwen lab of running the largest known distillation attack on Claude:

looorg writes:https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/07/04/ex-microsoft-engineer-rebuilds-notepad-in-2-5kb-using-nothing-but-stuff-windows-already-had/

"mrpg" writes:Record-breaking ocean drilling reveals why Japan's 2011 tsunami was so deadly:

Freeman writes:https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/07/bethesda-id-software-reportedly-hit-hard-by-microsoft-layoffs/

A recent article in Tech Review, https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/06/12/1138833/inside-interoception-brain-body or: https://archive.is/kGwUQ

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/06/nasa-may-send-a-backup-nuclear-powered-mars-rover-to-the-moon/

Frosty Piss writes:The Twenty-Ninth International Obfuscated C Code Contest - or IOCCC for short - is back again with the results of the 2025 competition. This year, one of the entrants has a unique new trick up their sleeve: a valid use case.With the 2025 competition, the contest had just been revived from a four-year hiatus.There are no fewer than 23 winning entries this year, including a hat-trick of hat-tricks: three entrants, Yusuke Endoh, Nick Craig-Wood, and Don Yang, all had three winning entries each.One element of the IOCCC is that the judges, Landon Curt Noll and Leonid A. Broukhis, invent new categories each time for each winning entry.The Obfuscated C Contest is not to be confused with the Underhanded C Contest, which took this sort of twisted genius and applied it to devious ends rather than fun shenanigans.https://www.theregister.com/offbeat/2026/07/05/c-programmers-commit-fresh-crimes-against-readability/5265981Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.

owl writes:https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/supreme-court-just-lit-fuse-130900307.html

mrpg writes:https://phys.org/news/2026-07-rats-empathy.htmlA rat first frees a cagemate rat and then shares food with it. Is this animal just as empathetic as humans? In an American study from 2011, researchers observed that rats first freed their fellow rats from a cage and then shared food with them instead of leaving them in the cage and eating alone; this means they showed empathy. But do they have the same capacity for empathy as we humans, or do we differ in that regard?A research team working with Professor Albert Newen from the Ruhr University Bochum Institute for Philosophy II in Germany set out to answer this question. They developed a model for more accurately describing empathy in various animals. Their answer: Yes, rats exhibit empathy, although it differs gradually from that of humans. The researchers report their findings in the journal Biological Reviews on June 28, 2026.Empathy is the glue that holds society together and makes everyday life personal and human. Is it not, therefore, a good candidate for a trait that separates humans from other animals? Are there any other animal species that show empathy?Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.

canopic jug writes:A blogger going by the handle "No One's Happy" has investigated the digital restrictions management technology being pushed into the Linux kernel at the behest of various malevolent actors.

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:https://www.theregister.com/os-platforms/2026/07/06/zombie-who-owns-unix-lawsuit-comes-alive-again/5266761

"mrpg" writes:Potentially fraudulent papers often cite each other and could be inflating the impact factor of journals in which they are published:

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:South Korea targets physical AI lead and commercial humanoid robots by 2028:

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:https://www.engadget.com/2206550/google-loses-final-appeal-over-eu-antitrust-fine/

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/06/ai-browsers-can-be-lulled-into-a-dream-world-where-guardrails-no-longer-apply/

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes: Florida bans local governments from pursuing net-zero emissions goals

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:NetNut cracked as Google and FBI target 2 million-device botnet

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:https://www.engadget.com/2206582/amazon-leo-is-ready-to-go/

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:https://www.quantamagazine.org/for-the-first-time-a-cell-built-from-scratch-grows-and-divides-20260701/

canopic jug writes:Archivist David Rosenthal observes now that more material is posted online by LLMs than actual people, the bots are starting to ingest their own digital excrement, creating a negative feedback loop.

looorg writes:Travel like it's 0 AD. Plan and travel your next road trip along the old Roman road network. As if they had Google Maps.https://www.euronews.com/culture/2026/07/02/ancient-romes-version-of-google-maps-how-long-to-reach-the-beach

jelizondo writes:A very interesting article was published in Phys.org about how modern life might be outpacing our mind, which evolved to deal with a simpler world:

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:https://www.slashgear.com/2204680/dot-law-change-no-brake-pedals-self-driving-cars/

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:A philosopher has put forward an argument for rethinking how particles are defined within the standard model of particle physics:

canopic jug writes:Derek Thompson has republished excerpts from an almost 100-year-old report on what the US was like in the 1920s. He includes some of the charts and summaries.

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:Linux 6.18 arrives with a few desktop tweaks, while the neglected x86 edition remains stuck on Debian 11:

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:Patients are also three times more likely to trust AI in their doctor's secure portal than a public chatbot:

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:Time to start praying to the goddess of wisdom and war:

canopic jug writes:The Medievalists has a short list of 10 inventions from the Middle Ages which have shaped the modern world.

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:The High-Luminosity LHC will be mostly the same machine, but it'll deliver 10 times the luminosity and just as little chance of destroying the universe - sorry, conspiracy theorists:

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:https://www.theregister.com/offbeat/2026/07/01/nasa-unsure-boeing-starliner-will-ever-be-certified-for-human-flight/5265177

"Fnord666" and dmc write:Oomwoo is a new open-source robot vacuum you can 3D print yourself, sidesteps cloud security risks by running fully offline - project combines Raspberry Pi, 2D LiDAR, and a 3D-printed chassis:

Freeman writes:https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/07/sony-will-stop-making-physical-copies-of-playstation-games-in-2028/

"Fnord666" writes:Engineer open-sources DIY radar system that's 95% cheaper than $250,000 commercial offerings, has 20 kilometer range - Moroccan engineer designs Aeris-10 radar, shares it on GitHub:

On behalf of all staff and community members, may we wish all Americans a very happy Independence Day (and weekend!). Importantly, stay cool and safe!And everyone, Americans and others (and assuming you didn't get an invite to Taylor's wedding celebrations), tell us what you will be doing and how you will spend the weekend!I will try to keep the stories flowing to allow the Usians to party appropriately.Read more of this story at SoylentNews.

Snotnose writes:I'm not even going to summarize this, but if you value American science you need to read it.

AnonTechie writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/polestar-ev-ban-commerce-department-volvo-china/

looorg writes:The UN sees great rewards, and risks, with AI for humanity and the world in their new report.

canopic jug writes:The Internet Archive and the Authors Alliance are producing a six-part series from the Future Knowledge podcast. The series, Vanishing Culture explores what happens when our shared cultural heritage disappears, and what we can do to preserve it. The first episode was published July 1, 2026 starts out discussing the growing threat of cultural loss in the digital age:

AnonTechie writes:An interesting interview with Cory Doctorow

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:https://www.engadget.com/2203145/nasa-tests-in-orbit-refueling-device-deep-space-missions/

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:https://www.newscientist.com/article/2531894-remote-controlled-cockroach-swarm-can-now-breathe-underwater/?utm_campaign=rss%7cnsns&utm_source=nsns&utm_medium=rss&utm_content=technology

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/06/supreme-court-ruling-guts-governments-use-of-geofence-warrants/