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DECbot writes:As first seen in @Day of the Dalek's journal, and suggested to be posted as a Meta story on the Main page by @quietus, here is a call for volunteers:

owl writes:https://www.atariarchive.org/blog/adventure-march-1980/

upstart writes:Kosmos 482, weighing 500kg, was meant to land on Venus in the 1970s but it never made it out of orbit because of a rocket malfunction:

upstart writes:Backstage access: Spotify's dev tools side-hustle is growing legs:

upstart writes:Microsoft Finally Launches Its Controversial Recall Feature:

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upstart writes:Plastic-eating mealworms native to Africa discovered:

upstart writes:The final farewell for LG's phone business:

upstart writes:China may have achieved a "Sputnik moment" in the clean energy technology race by successfully reloading a nuclear reactor that runs on thorium:

owl writes:https://www.righto.com/2025/05/intel-386-register-circuitry.html

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upstart writes:Largest Imaging Spectro-Polarimeter Achieves First Light at the NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope - NSO - National Solar Observatory:

I am resigning with immediate effect from SoylentNews. I no longer have the trust of all of the community and my position is untenable.I wish the site and the community all the very best for the future. I have enjoyed being a part of the last 11 years and I will be leaving behind many friends.Some might say "Break out the flags and let the party commence!"JanAddendumI have been asked by the Chairman of the Board to publicise an email that I sent to him in response to him asking me what way my departure will affect the site's operation in the immediate future.

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upstart writes:Another Periodic Suggestion to Try, Just Try, Switching to Kagi for Search:

owl writes:https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2025/04/photos-35th-anniversary-hubble-space-telescope/682628/

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upstart writes:A Strange Phrase Keeps Turning Up in Scientific Papers, But Why?:

Snotnose writes:According to Popular Science some dolphins have an unusual way to attract a mate.

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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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:

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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: