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Snotnose writes:This article argues history has shown the YF-23 was a better stealth fighter than the F-22.

hubie writes:Settlement comes more than 6 years after Gary DeMercurio and Justin Wynn's ordeal began:

JoeMerchant writes:In "The Adolescence of Technology," Dario Amodei argues that humanity is entering a "technological adolescence" due to the rapid approach of "powerful AI"-systems that could soon surpass human intelligence across all fields. While optimistic about potential benefits in his previous essay, "Machines of Loving Grace," Amodei here focuses on a "battle plan" for five critical risks:1. Autonomy: Models developing unpredictable, "misaligned" behaviors.

hubie writes:Salty facts: takeaways have more salt than labels claim:

looorg writes:

fliptop writes:Elon Musk's X on Tuesday released its source code for the social media platform's feed algorithm:

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Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:The following story:

upstart writes:Red Dwarfs Are Too Dim To Generate Complex Life:

hubie writes:Generative AI is reshaping software development - and fast:

JoeMerchant writes:For those unaware: digg is attempting a comeback. They opened their beta to the broad internet around January 18th or so. The site looks nice, there are some rough edges on the software (OAUTH wasn't working for me...) but it's mostly functional. What remains to be seen is: what will this new digg become? When digg left the scene (in the mid-late 2000s - by my reckoning), bots and AI and AI bots and troll farms and AI troll farms and all of that were a tiny fraction of their current influence. Global human internet users in 2007 were estimated at 1.3 billion vs 6 billion today, and mobile usage was just getting started vs its almost total dominance in content consumption now. There is some debate on digg whether they are trying to become reddit2, or what... and my input to that debate was along the lines of: digg is currently small, in its current state human moderation is the only thing that makes any sense, user self mods through blocks, community moderation through post and comment censorship (doesn't belong in THIS forum), and site moderation against griefers - mods all the way down; but as it grows, when feeds start getting multiple new posts per minute, human moderation becomes impractical - some auto-moderation will inevitably become necessary - and the nature of that auto-moderation is going to need to constantly evolve as the site grows and its user base matures.Well, apparently I was right, because a few hours later my account appears to have been shadow banned - no explanation, just blocked from posting and my posts deleted. I guess somebody didn't like what I was saying, and "moderated" me away. As outlined above, I think a sitewide ban is a little overboard for the thought police to invoke without warning, but... it's their baby and I need to spend less time online anyway, no loss to me. And, digg isn't my core topic for this story anyway... I have also noticed some interesting developments in Amazon reviews - the first page of "my reviews" is always happy to see me, we appreciate the effort you put into your reviews, etc. etc., but... if I dig back a page or two, I start finding "review removed" on some older ones, and when I go to see what I wrote that might have been objectionable, I can't - it's just removed. There's a button there to "submit a new review" but, clicking that I get a message "we're sorry, this account is not eligible to submit reviews on this product." No active notice from Amazon that this happened, no explanation of why, or the scope of my review ineligibility, it just seems that if "somebody, somewhere" (product sellers are high on my suspect list) decides they don't like your review, it is quietly removed and you are quietly blocked from reviewing their products anymore. Isn't the world a happier place where we all just say nice things that everybody involved wants to hear? I do remember, one of my reviews that got removed was critical of a particular category of products, all very similarly labeled and described, but when the products arrive you never know from one "brand" to the next quite what you are getting, some are like car wax: hard until it melts in your hand, some are more water soluble, all are labeled identically with just subtle differences in the packaging artwork. I might have given 3/5 stars, probably 4, because: it was good car wax, but if you were expecting more of a hair mousse? The industry would do itself a favor by figuring out how to communicate that to customers buying their products, in my opinion. Well, that opinion doesn't even appear on Amazon anymore.Something that has developed/matured on social sites quite a bit since the late 2000s are block functions. They're easier for users to use, control, some sites allow sharing of block lists among users. Of course this brings up obvious echo chamber concerns, but... between an echo chamber and an open field full of state and corporate sponsored AI trolls? I'd like a middle ground, but I don't think there's enough human population on the internet to effectively whack-a-mole by hand to keep the trolls in line. You can let the site moderators pick and choose who gets the amplified voices, and to circle back to digg - I haven't dug around about it, but if anybody knows what their monetization plan is, I wouldn't mind hearing speculation or actual quasi-fact based reporting how they intend to pay for their bandwidth and storage?As I said and apparently got banned for: some moderation will always be necessary, and as the internet continues to evolve the best solutions for that will have to continue to evolve with it, there's never going to be an optimized solution that stays near optimal for more than a few months, at least not on sites that aspire to reddit, Xitter, Facebook, Bluesky, digg? sized user bases. As we roll along through 2026, who should be holding the ban hammers, and how often and aggressively should they be wielded? Apparently digg has some auto-moderation that's impractically over-aggressive at the moment, they say they're working on it. More power to 'em, they can work on it without my input from here on out.Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.

hubie writes:Review of studies shows meeting face-to-face has more benefits:

Freeman writes:https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/01/tsmc-says-ai-demand-is-endless-after-record-q4-earnings/

hubie writes:Researchers publish first comprehensive structural engineering manual for bamboo:

quietus writes:Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Ireland, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have agreed 300 gigawatt in offshore wind generation capacity in the North Sea by 2050. Current offshore wind capacity in the North Sea is 37 gigawatt. Getting to the equivalent of 300 nuclear power plants, or 8 times as much as the current capacity, will require an investment of a trillion euro.The governments of the North Sea countries promise investment guarantees to industry: if the wholesale price on the market drops beneath an agreed upon level, government will fund the missing part; if the wholesale price exceeds that level, the top-over will go to the governments involved. In exchange, the offshore wind industry and distribution net managers promise 91,000 additional jobs and agreed to a 30 percent price reduction towards 2040.In 2023, the same governments already had agreed to 120GW by 2030. It turns out that aim is/was quite a bit overambitious.Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.

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owl writes:https://nand2mario.github.io/posts/2026/80386_multiplication_and_division/

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jman writes:Am not a big fan of Power(s)Hell, but British Tech site TheRegister announced its creator Jeffery Snover is retiring after moving from M$ to G$ a few years ago.In that write-up, Snover details how the original name for Cmdlets was Functional Units, or FUs:

An Anonymous Coward writes:https://www.extremetech.com/internet/psa-starlink-now-uses-customers-personal-data-for-ai-training

An Anonymous Coward writes:https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=showheadline&story=20123

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AnonTechie writes:[Source]: Microsoft Gave FBI a Set of BitLocker Encryption Keys to Unlock Suspects' Laptops

Freeman writes:https://arstechnica.com/features/2026/01/this-may-be-the-grossest-eye-pic-ever-but-the-cause-is-whats-truly-horrifying/

fliptop writes:OpenAI has decided to incorporate advertisements into its ChatGPT service for free users and those on the lower-tier Go plan, a shift announced just days ago:

hubie writes:Human-driven land sinking now outpaces sea-level rise in many of the world's major delta systems, threatening more than 236 million people:

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:https://phys.org/news/2026-01-greenwashing-false-stability-companies.html

fliptop writes:A stunning discovery in a Moroccan cave is forcing scientists to reconsider the narrative of human origins. Unearthed from a site in Casablanca, 773,000-year-old fossils display a perplexing blend of ancient and modern features, suggesting that key traits of our species emerged far earlier and across a wider geographic area than previously believed:

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hubie writes:Limescale deposits in wells, pipes, and bathing facilities provide information about Pompeii's ancient water supply:

hubie writes:I came across a very interesting social media post by John Carlos Baez about a paper published a few weeks ago that showed you can build a universal computation machine using a single billiard ball on a carefully crafted table. According to one of the paper's authors (Eva Miranda):

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upstart writes:Caltech-led Team Finds New Superconducting State:

AnonTechie writes:Starlink in IranAn interesting technical article about satellite communications and Iran

hubie writes:Physics of Foam Strangely Resembles AI Training:

Freeman writes:https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/01/new-ai-plugin-uses-wikipedias-ai-writing-detection-rules-to-help-it-sound-human/

looorg writes:https://torrentfreak.com/nvidia-contacted-annas-archive-to-secure-access-to-millions-of-pirated-books/

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:Scientists have discovered that human hair grows not by being pushed out of the follicle, but by being actively pulled upward by coordinated cellular movements deep within the tissue:

looorg writes:Humans use tools, it's one of the things that make us great. Some of the other smarter monkeys also use tools. Next up we have Cows. Cow tool users. Beware the bovine master race ... also lactose tolerant.

fliptop writes:Schools across the U.S. are rolling out AI-powered surveillance technology, including drones, facial recognition and even bathroom listening devices. But there's not much data to prove they keep kids safe:

upstart writes:France records more deaths than births for first time since end of second world war:

fliptop writes:A growing number of college professors are sounding the alarm over a quiet but accelerating crisis on American campuses, as Gen Z Arriving at College Unable to Read:

upstart writes:The 'bombshell' science that casts doubt on claims about microplastics:

hubie writes:Intentionally shaping your free time through goal setting, learning and connection does not just boost well-being outside the office but can spill over into creativity, engagement, and meaning at work, especially for older employees:

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:IT spending set to hit $1.4 trillion in 2026 - but what exactly are we spending it on?