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upstart writes:Monty Python and the Holy Grail turns 50:

taylorvich writes:https://techxplore.com/news/2025-04-flying-squirrel-drone-foldable-wings.html

upstart writes:China's '2D' chip could soon be used to make silicon-free chips:

upstart writes:A gas clump in the Milky Way's neighborhood might be a 'dark galaxy':

hubie writes:The company is also pulling Nest thermostats out of Europe entirely, citing "unique" heating challenges:

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taylorvich writes:https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-04-left-arm-reveals-vaccination-site.html

AnonTechie writes:[Source]: GIZMODO

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canopic jug writes:Wired has an interview about precautions to take with mobile devices if one cannot avoid crossing into the United States. The advice applies to all electronics.

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

upstart writes:Learn about the escalating threat of volcanoes in Iceland and how a new warning system is helping to inform the public when eruptions will occur:

braddollar writes:Today the U.S. House of Representatives passed the TAKE IT DOWN Act, giving the powerful a dangerous new route to manipulate platforms into removing lawful speech that they simply don't like. President Trump himself has said that he would use the law to censor his critics. The bill passed the Senate in February, and it now heads to the president's desk.The takedown provision in TAKE IT DOWN applies to a much broader category of content-potentially any images involving intimate or sexual content-than the narrower NCII definitions found elsewhere in the bill.Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.

Analysis-Google, X Next Targets as Europe Stays Tough on Tech Regulationupstart writes:Analysis-Google, X next targets as Europe stays tough on tech regulation:

The Agonizing Task of Turning Europe's Power Back onupstart writes:The Agonizing Task of Turning Europe's Power Back On:

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Mojibake Tengu writes:Site: https://tmuxai.dev/ Github: https://github.com/alvinunreal/tmuxaiIs it dangerous? Probably. Though, so is everything else in a terminal. Stay safe, do not antagonize LLMs. Be careful about what you ask for.It was inevitably coming. This one is cute:TmuxAI

taylorvich writes:https://phys.org/news/2025-04-framework-stars-dissolve-neutrons-forge.html

looorg writes:Urinals have had the same or a similar design since its invention or introduction. Sometimes it leaves things to be desired, that or the aim of the people using them. New designs promises to lower water consumption and collect more, or lead to less spillage. By changing the geometry. Lets hope it's not piss-poor-math."Splash-free urinals for global sustainability and accessibility: Design through physics and differential equations "

upstart writes:Differences between the fireplaces indicate ingenious use:

upstart writes:Battery, solar, and wind projects are getting killed in record numbers:

An Anonymous Coward writes:I just saw this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMwjKyAPR34, explaining how the end of the world is coming in 2028 or so. I work for the department of redundancy department, so here's a summary:Investors are throwing a lot of money into AI research. State-level investors, in many cases, are interested in surveillance and efficient warfare. Many experts are saying that humans cannot control a machine more intelligent than themselves. Experts have also outlined a number of "AGI success" scenarios which end with human extinction. The video provides a relatively simple suggestion to circumvent the problem: keep "AI" simple for now, by keeping three properties always separate: "autonomy", "generality" and "intelligence". The video then ends encouraging the spreading of the word, and putting pressure on the EU to act on this (since it seems that the US and China are going to ignore the warnings).In a recent journal entry by AnonTechie https://soylentnews.org/~AnonTechie/journal/19211 [note: I am not AnonTechie] other experts say that we're not on the right path to general AI. I asked there "but why try to make AGI in the first place?". And it's still not clear to me: what advantage does humanity get from "building AGI"? I can certainly see the money that Google, Amazon and Facebook are making from improving their advertisement stuff, and I can certainly see the benefits of improved medical diagnosis, universal translation, and a bunch of other clearly defined use-cases. But why do we need 1 algorithmic/hardware entity that can do everything? Why are the citizens of democracies allowing their governments to put money into "AGI"?For what it's worth, humanity has recent experience with exponential growth (covid), and warnings of a catastrophic future ignored by governments and populations (climate change). We also have experience with a catastrophic future that was avoided (ozone layer survives and it's recovering because of actions taken in the 1980s). In democracies, at least nominally, power is evenly divided between people through the universal vote. How can we convince voters that the rate of progress in AI research is out of control?In the case of ITER (hard theory), the LHC (hard theory and high precision) or LIGO (high precision) there is a human community which can ultimately explain every nut and bolt.

Many of you will recall last week I made a plea for submissions as the subs queue was all but empty. One of our regular contributors did us proud and provided about a dozen stories, some of which you have already seen. But, unusually, they were all connected by a single topic - the gut microbiome.Several of you have made comments that you are aware of the strong link between the microbiome and various medical problems and issues. Rather than drag all the other stories out gradually, I have created a mashup of the remaining stories.There are quite a few..... Thanks c0lo!Gut Microbiome Could Delay Onset of Type 1 DiabetesGut microbiome could delay onset of type 1 diabetes:

hubie writes:Ideal for everyone who likes to throw a few swear words into their sentences:

An Anonymous Coward writes:- https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=showheadline&story=19984

upstart writes:9-mile-thick layer of solid diamonds may lurk beneath Mercury's surface, study hints:

Arthur Wellesley writes:The XKCD cartoon 'PhD Timeline' ( https://xkcd.com/3081/ ) with its rollover, protests.Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.

hubie writes:Energy labelling and ecodesign requirements will apply to these products from June 2025:

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canopic jug writes:Mathematician, cryptologist, and computer scientist, Daniel J Bernstein has written a detailed blog post about the McEliece cryptosystem. Specifically he covers what Classic McEliece does , how the parameter sets were selected, its small ciphertexts, what NIST says about ISO standardization. what NIST says about deployment, a note about one performance number, a second note about FrodoKEM, and finally what NIST says about security.

upstart writes:Kennedy promises exhaustive studies to identify any environmental factors that may cause autismKennedy promises exhaustive studies to identify any environmental factors that may cause autism:

upstart writes:One hundred years after its discovery, the colossal squid has been filmed alive in its environment for the first time:

canopic jug writes:SparkFun Electronics, known for open source designs and software libraries, has an article covering the history of time keeping, from the earliest archeological evidence like sundials and water clocks, through mechanical clocks, to the latest standards like Cesium-133 atomic clocks.

upstart writes:Study provides explanation for one bacterium's link to mental health:

aliks writes:The story itself is interesting as quantum messaging over existing networks dramatically reduces costs, but I wanted to compare how different sources report the story.The story caught my eye on phys.org where you get a short but reasonable summary with pictures. Maybe phys.org used AI to generate this summary?scienmag.com has a longer summary with more detail and commentary on why the story is significant.The original story is reported in Nature, with more detail and dense technical language.First off we have phys.org: Quantum messages travel 254 km using existing infrastructure for the first time

A team of researchers has developed a new way to control light interactions using a specially engineered structure called a 3D photonic-crystal cavity that could enable transformative advancements in quantum computing, quantum communication and other quantum-based technologies.

upstart writes:Those are large numbers for an SD card:

canopic jug writes:Harvard University is pushing back via a lawsuit against micromanagement and censorship attempts emanating from the White House.

upstart writes:Out-of-balance bacteria is linked to multiple sclerosis - the ratio can predict severity of disease:

Freeman writes:https://arstechnica.com/culture/2025/04/4chan-may-be-dead-but-its-toxic-legacy-lives-on/

An Anonymous Coward writes:https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/19/us_crosswalk_button_hacking/Some pranksters altered the voices on crosswalk buttons in some US cities. The hardware had a control app available on Google Play and Apple App Store along with a listed default PIN of 1234.

coolgopher writes:http://www.quiss.org/signal_carnival/

JoeMerchant writes:

fliptop writes:The scam exploited a Google Sites vulnerability, tricking users with convincing fake emails:

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turgid writes:At phys.org there is an article about a lone black hole discovered by astronomers at the University of St Andrews.Lone black holes are very rare, and the discovery was challenged, since lone neutron stars are far more common but subsequent observations confirm the lone black hole moving through the constellation Sagittarius.

coolgopher writes:https://blog.infected.systems/posts/2025-04-21-this-blog-is-hosted-on-a-nintendo-wii/

Booga1 writes:Researchers explored a new range of colors using a different kind of laser vision. Direct laser stimulation of individual photoreceptors:

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