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Comment Inevitable Corruption (Score 1) 54

If money or power can be had it will get corrupted. So it is with business, politics and sports betting.

In baseball, when you can bet on individual pitches it's too easy for the pitcher or umpire to fix the outcome.

Sports betting also devalues the game. People can no longer enjoy it.

Submission + - French troops boarded Russian tanker (dailymail.co.uk)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: French troops have boarded the deck of a tanker alleged to be from Russia's 'shadow fleet' and suspected of involvement in drone flights over Denmark last month.

Submission + - Switzerland approves digital ID in narrow vote (bbc.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Swiss voters have narrowly approved a plan to introduce voluntary electronic identity cards.

With all votes counted, 50.4% of those who voted said yes to the proposal, while 49.6% rejected it.

The closeness of the ballot is a surprise. Opinion polls had suggested up to 60% backed digital IDs, which also had the approval of the Swiss government, and both houses of parliament.

It was Switzerland's second vote on digital IDs. An earlier proposal was rejected in 2021, amid concerns the data would be held centrally, and controlled largely by private providers.

Sunday's revised proposal keeps the system in government hands. Data will be stored only on the smartphones of individual users, and digital IDs will be optional.

Citizens can continue to use national identity card if they choose, which has been standard for decades in Switzerland.

To further ease privacy concerns, a particular authority seeking information on a person – such as proof of age or nationality, for example – will only be able to check for those specific details.

Submission + - China robot army grows by 300,000 in a year, outpaces rest of world combined (interestingengineering.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: hina has overtaken the U.S. and the world in making and installing factory robots, according to a report released by the International Federation of Robotics on Thursday.

The East-Asian nation cemented its position as the world’s manufacturing powerhouse after installing nearly 300,000 new robots, taking its total tally to over 2 million robots working in factories.

American factories installed only 34,000 robots, signaling a gigantic gap in embracing the technology.

Submission + - Every adult in Britain will require a Government-issued digital ID card (dailymail.co.uk)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Every working adult in Britain will require a Government-issued digital ID card under a 'dystopian' plan set to be announced by Sir Keir Starmer.

The idea of a mandatory identification system has long been advocated by Labour as a way to tackle illegal migration.

But the proposal is fiercely opposed by civil rights campaigners, who warn it will erode civil liberties and turn the UK into a 'papers please' society.

Meanwhile, polls show a majority of the public do not trust ministers to keep their personal data safe from cyber-criminals.

Detailed proposals for what has been dubbed a 'Brit Card' could be announced by the Prime Minister as early as tomorrow.

Under the scheme, anyone starting a new job or renting a property would be required to show their digital ID on an app so it can be automatically checked against a central database.

Comment MLB should stop placating the umpires union (Score 1) 22

by schwit1 (#65679416) Attached to: MLB Approves Robot Umps In 2026 For Challenges

MLB should have zero-tolerance for umpiring errors. To that end they should use roboump for every pitch.

Human umpires add zero value to a ball game. If they get every call correct they have not made the game better. So all they can do is make a game worse with their mistakes.

MLB needs to remove the flawed humans from these decisions as much as possible.

Submission + - Vietnam Shuts Down Millions of Bank Accounts Over Biometric Rules (icobench.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: As of September 1, 2025, banks across Vietnam are closing accounts deemed inactive or non-compliant with new biometric rules. Authorities estimate that more than 86 million accounts out of roughly 200 million are at risk if users fail to update their identity verification.

The State Bank of Vietnam has also introduced stricter thresholds for transactions:
  • Facial authentication is mandatory for online transfers above 10 million VND (about $379).
  • Cumulative daily transfers over 20 million VND ($758) also require biometric approval.

The policy is part of the central bank’s broader “cashless” strategy, aimed at combating fraud, identity theft, and deepfake-enabled scams.

As one person commented
If users don't comply by the 30th they'll lose their money. This is why we bitcoin.

Submission + - Google launches "Learn Your Way" (x.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: This is going to revolutionize education

Google just launched "Learn Your Way" that basically takes whatever boring chapter you're supposed to read and rebuilds it around stuff you actually give a damn about.

Like if you're into basketball and have to learn Newton's laws, suddenly all the examples are about dribbling and shooting. Art kid studying economics? Now it's all gallery auctions and art markets.

Here's what got me though. They didn't just find-and-replace examples like most "personalized" learning crap does. The AI actually generates different ways to consume the same information:

- Mind maps if you think visually
- Audio lessons with these weird simulated teacher conversations
- Timelines you can click around
- Quizzes that change based on what you're screwing up

They tested this on 60 high schoolers. Random assignment, proper study design. Kids using their system absolutely destroyed the regular textbook group on both immediate testing and when they came back three days later.

Every single one said it made them more confident.

The part that surprised me? They actually solved the accuracy problem. Most ed-tech either dumbs everything down to nothing or gets basic facts wrong.

Submission + - Secret Service Raids Malicious SIM Server Setup (apnews.com)

Submitted by Gilmoure
Gilmoure writes: The US Secret Service is in the process of taking down a massive network of SIM Server systems, designed to function "like banks of mock cellphones, able to generate mass calls and texts, overwhelm local networks and mask encrypted communications criminals. When agents entered the sites, they found rows of servers and shelves stacked with SIM cards. More than 100,000 were already active, investigators said, but there were also large numbers waiting to be deployed, evidence that operators were preparing to double or even triple the network’s capacity, McCool said. He described it as a well-funded, highly organized enterprise, one that cost millions of dollars in hardware and SIM cards alone."

Submission + - US Secret Service 'dismantles telecommunications threat' (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by mrspoonsi
mrspoonsi writes: The US Secret Service says it has dismantled a network of more than 300 SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards in the New York area that were capable of crippling telecom systems.

The devices were "concentrated within 35 miles of the global meeting of the UN General Assembly now under way in New York City" and an investigation has been launched, it adds in a press statement.

The Secret Service says the dangers posed included "disabling cell phone towers, enabling denial of services attacks, and facilitating anonymous, encrypted communication between potential threat actors and criminal enterprises".

Submission + - Trump signs proclamation adding $100K annual fee for H-1B visa applications (apnews.com) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Looking to reshape the U.S. visa system for highly skilled foreign workers and investors, President Donald Trump on Friday signed a proclamation that will require a new annual $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications.

The moves face near-certain legal challenges and widespread criticism that Trump is going beyond presidential authority by sidestepping Congress. The actions, if they survive legal muster, will deliver staggering price increases for high-skilled and investor visas created by Congress in 1990.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the H-1B visa fee will be $100,000 per year and added that “all big companies” are on board.

H-1B visas are meant to bring the best and brightest foreigners for high-skilled jobs that tech companies find difficult to fill with qualified U.S. citizens and permanent residents. The program instead has turned into a pipeline for overseas workers who are often willing to work for as little as $60,000 annually. That is far less than $100,000-plus salaries typically paid to U.S. technology workers.

Submission + - If We Want Bigger Wind Turbines, We're Gonna Need Bigger Airplanes (ieee.org) 2

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The world’s largest airplane, when it’s built, will stretch more than a football field from tip to tail. Sixty percent longer than the biggest existing aircraft, with 12 times as much cargo space as a 747, the behemoth will look like an oil tanker that’s sprouted wings—aeronautical engineering at a preposterous scale.

Called WindRunner, and expected by 2030, it’ll haul just one thing: massive wind-turbine blades. In most parts of the world, onshore wind-turbine blades can be built to a length of 70 meters, max. This size constraint comes not from the limits of blade engineering or physics; it’s transportation. Any larger and the blades couldn’t be moved over land, since they wouldn’t fit through tunnels or overpasses, or be able to accommodate some of the sharper curves of roads and rails.

So the WindRunner’s developer, Radia of Boulder, Colo., has staked its business model on the idea that the only way to get extralarge blades to wind farms is to fly them there. “The companies in the industryknow how to make turbines that are the size of the Eiffel Tower with blades that are longer than a football field,” says Mark Lundstrom, Radia’s founder and CEO. “But they’re just frustrated that they can’t deploy those machines [on land].”

Radia’s plane will be able to hold two 95-meter blades or one 105-meter blade, and land on makeshift dirt runways adjacent to wind farms. This may sound audacious—an act of hubris undertaken for its own sake. But Radia’s supporters argue that WindRunner is simply the right tool for the job—the only way to make onshore wind turbines bigger.

Bigger turbines, after all, can generate more energy at a lower cost per megawatt. But the question is: Will supersizing airplanes be worth the trouble?

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