Submission + - NASA admits mismanagement and human errors caused 2025 Goldstone antenna damage (behindtheblack.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: NASA today released its completed investigation into the November 2025 incident that severely damaged its Goldstone antenna in California when workers allowed the antenna to "over rotate" beyond its acceptable limits, putting it out of commission.

You can read that report here [pdf], but be warned that large sections are redacted, apparently in an effort to protect the identities of those responsible.

Nonetheless, it is very clear that the management and work situation at Goldstone was a mess, and that the mishap was caused not by faulty engineering but by faulty work practices and bad management. Unfortunately, nowhere in the report is it said that there will be any management changes. This fact might have been redacted, but I suspect not. It is typical of government agencies like NASA after incidents like this to whitewash the investigation, concluding simply that "we should have done better and we now we will!"

The repairs will cost NASA about $4.6 million, and will likely not be completed until 2028.

Submission + - Palantir wins £9M contract to run UK firearms licensing (theregister.com)

Submitted by Shakes Fist
Shakes Fist writes: "The US spy-tech biz will also handle Home Office licensing for explosives, explosive precursors, and poisons. The contract covers a replacement for the National Firearms Licensing Management System (NFLMS), which has been in use since the mid-2000s."

Palantir crawls further under the skin of the UK State.

Submission + - Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Reaches Criticality In First Test (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Just over a year ago, the Trump Administration issued an executive order meant to accelerate the development of nuclear power in the US. While an entire starup ecosystem has developed around the use of different—and typically smaller—reactor designs, only one of them has been fully licensed so far, and there are no plans to actually build any instances of that design.

The executive order directed the Department of Energy to have three different reactor designs reach criticality in a bit over a year. On Thursday, a startup called Antares announced that a test reactor it had placed at the Idaho National Laboratory had reached criticality, making it the first new design to cross this threshold. Criticality means that the nuclear reactions inside the hardware had become self sustaining; it does not mean the reactor had started to generate power. [...]

At the moment, Antares is just testing what it calls a Mark 0 reactor, which is not connected to the power-generation portion. Instead, it’s being used to validate the company’s modeling of the physical conditions in its reactors and generate safety data that can be used during licensing applications. Attempts to run the entire system, including electrical generation, are expected to happen next year. While the work was done at a Department of Energy Lab, the company is working with the Department of Defense’s Project Pele program for developing a mobile nuclear reactor. The company has also received support from NASA.

Submission + - 340 Local News Outlets Now Blocking The Internet Archive (techdirt.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Earlier this year Nieman Lab broke the story that major news publishers, including The New York Times, The Guardian, and USA Today Co., had started blocking the Internet Archive for fear that AI companies might scrape the nonprofit’s repositories for training data. As one of the last bastions of archival history, that is, in case you’re not aware, not very good for the public interest. Four months later and Nieman Lab now notes that the number of news outlets blocking the archive has soared to around 340 organizations:

“Our new analysis shows that more than 340 local news sites across the United States are now limiting the Internet Archive’s ability to access and preserve their stories. Many sites in our sample are owned by five of the seven largest local news publishers in the country: USA Today Co., McClatchy, Advance Local, MediaNews Group, and Tribune Publishing. The latter two are both subsidiaries of the “vulture hedge fund” Alden Global Capital.”

[...] Regardless of motivation, hiding whatever local news remains behind paywalls, then blocking it from the Internet Archive, in turn makes it harder for everyone else to do real journalism that relies on the historical record, local journalists tell Nieman Lab: “I cover news within a larger news desert in New York’s Rockland, Sullivan, and Rockland counties. This means I need to heavily rely on archival data of old news articles from now deceased, or zombie-fied, media outlets,” wrote B.J. Mendelson, the editor of The Monroe Gazette newsletter, in one recent petition signed by over 200 journalists. “Without the Internet Archive, my [work] would be incredibly difficult to do.”

Submission + - Another fine identity mess the Google has gotten us into? (creators.google)

Submitted by shanen
shanen writes: Can't find any discussion of "Google for Creators", so here's a submission for ye olde Slashdot. Me thinks the essential idea is sort of good, but the idea of the google controlling it is bad. My version was kind of a public utility website where each person could anchor their identity on the Web, though I was seeing it as a way to protect identity by linking your real identities and allowing for the reporting of impersonation identities. My version of the idea broke down over the lack of a trustworthy host for such a thing.

The google's motivation is much more clear and I sort of applaud them. The google wants to have a kind of choke-point over as many Internet influencers as possible. If your identity is big enough to matter, then the google is offering to give "free" advertising. ONLY if you matter in the ways that google accepts but the real questions are "Why would anyone trust the google that much these years?" and "How is the google planning to monetize the choke-point?"

Submission + - Google Says It Will Replenish More Water Than It Uses At Data Centers (9to5google.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: There’s been a lot of pushback in recent months around the impact of AI data centers on local communities, with the use of water being a key issue for many. Google, in an expension of its “water stewardship” programs, is making commitments that include replenishing more water than it uses at its data center sites. AI data centers go through a lot of water use in cooling the hardware used to power models, and Google is no exception. While Google stands by saying that the impact of AI data centers on US water consumption is “small,” it also says it is focusing on “protecting local water resources in all aspects of our data center operations.”

In a post, Google explains five new commitments regarding water use at its data centers in the US. These include replenishing more water than is consumed at data centers, helping local utilities to modernize water infrastructure, using air-cooled solutions in areas where watersheds are at risk, “transparently” reporting water use at data centers, and focusing on “alternative and reclaimed” water solutions. [...] In a linked paper (PDF), Google says it will replenish 120% of the water it uses at data center sites by 2030. Google is also committing $17 million to new water stewardship projects in Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and Texas in addition to 165 other projects already in place throughout the US.

Submission + - BSA lashes out at mandatory open-source licensing (bsa.org)

Submitted by Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: The American Business Software Alliance (BSA) does not consider mandatory open-source licensing to be an appropriate indicator of sovereignty. This is among the "pointed messages" they sent to the French government consultation (closed) today. "What protects Europe is the ability to govern, audit, and mitigate risk, not where a company files its corporate papers," said Thomas Boué of BSA.

Submission + - A China-linked hacking group is quietly living inside Microsoft IIS servers (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: ReliaQuest says it uncovered a previously unknown China-linked hacking cluster called OP-512 that has reportedly been targeting outdated Microsoft IIS servers running unsupported .NET Framework software. According to the security company, the attackers used custom web shells, encrypted command channels, timestomping, and DNS-based âoephone homeâ techniques designed to evade traditional antivirus detection and maintain long-term access for espionage operations.

The company claims its âoeAgentic AIâ platform pieced together what initially looked like unrelated low-level security events into a single coordinated intrusion. ReliaQuest says the malware framework generates cryptographically unique deployments that make signature-based detection ineffective. The report also warns that organizations still exposing legacy IIS infrastructure to the internet remain attractive targets for increasingly sophisticated state-linked attackers.

Submission + - Code.org Rebrands to CodeAI, Disbands Its K-12 CS Education Advocacy Coalition

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "The Code.org Advocacy Coalition is growing the movement to make Computer Science a fundamental part of the K-12 education," explained tech-backed nonprofit Code.org in 2018. Eight years later, that mission — which began in 2013 — has changed. On Monday, Code.org rebranded as CodeAI (press release), solidifying its shift to AI education. And on Tuesday, members of the Code.org Advocacy Coalition were rounded up for a conference call and informed that their 100+ organization group was being disbanded and from here on in it'll be the AI Way or the Highway for current members.

From the transcript: "We're now at a crossroads. AI is completely transforming all of society, including education and especially computer science. In the past, the focus of computer science was coding. Today, the focus is AI. [...] Preparing every student for the age of AI requires a broader vision. Starting today, Code.org is CodeAI. [...] We're moving into the next chapter. So, just to be clear, we are sunsetting the Code.org Advocacy Coalition. This will be our last meeting of the Code.org advocacy coalition. We will be standing up the CodeAI advocacy coalition. [...] [Expect an email] giving you a chance to say 'Our organization is in line with the direction that Code AI is heading and we want to be part of those advocacy efforts. But it also gives your organization a chance to say, 'You know what? We're not in line with the direction that CodeAI is heading, so we're not going to be part of the new advocacy coalition.' [...] We are also going to be focused on bringing in new AI focused entities that will help us advance this mission."

Or, to paraphrase Ken Kesey, "You're either on the K-12 AI literacy bus or off the K-12 AI literacy bus."

Submission + - Capita launched civil service pension scheme site without 'basic' web security

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Capita launched civil service pension scheme site without ‘basic’ web security

‘Capita was warned in December that the security of the web domain which manages the pensions of 1.7 million members of the Civil Service Pension Scheme (CSPS), lacked “basic controls”. ’

“News of the CSPS issues prompted us to undertake some research as cited experts and the threat intelligence is simply too damning not to try and reach out to you all collectively.”

Submission + - Is the AI boom quietly becoming a water problem?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Is the AI boom quietly becoming a water problem?

“By the end of this decade, global freshwater demand is projected to exceed supply by around 40%, at the same time as AIdriven technologies are expected to push global water use from roughly 1.1 billion to 6.6 billion cubic metres a year by 2027.”

“By the end of this decade, global freshwater demand is projected to exceed supply by around 40%, at the same time as AIdriven technologies are expected to push global water use from roughly 1.1 billion to 6.6 billion cubic metres a year by 2027.”

Submission + - Patreon terms & conditions

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Terms of Use:

‘In order to be eligible to use Patreon, you must not be located, organised or ordinarily resident in a country or territory subject to comprehensive US sanctions or embargoes (currently, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and the Crimea, so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, and so-called Luhansk People’s Republic regions of Ukraine) and you must not be designated on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List or any other sanctions lists maintained by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”).’

Submission + - Cloudflare now controls a huge piece of the open source web (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: Cloudflare has acquired VoidZero, the company behind Vite, one of the most widely used JavaScript build tools on the web today. The deal also brings related open source projects like Vitest, Rolldown, and Oxc under Cloudflareâ(TM)s umbrella, giving the company enormous influence over modern web development infrastructure. Cloudflare insists the projects will remain MIT licensed, vendor-neutral, and community driven, while also pledging $1 million toward an independent Vite ecosystem fund.

The acquisition highlights how AI-generated code is reshaping software development. Cloudflare says AI coding agents are increasingly choosing Vite-based workflows because of their speed and compatibility, with the Cloudflare Vite plugin now accounting for nearly 14 million weekly downloads. While developers may appreciate tighter integration and faster deployment tooling, some are likely to worry about another major piece of the open source web stack becoming closely tied to a giant infrastructure provider.

Submission + - Supreme Court Sides With Trump Admin On Federal Regulation of Telecom Companies (apnews.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration Thursday in upholding the power of federal regulators to enforce data privacy laws on telecommunications companies. The 8-1 decision preserved one of the Federal Communications Commission’s key tools, though the companies also won a concession from the Republican administration that could shift the regulatory landscape.

The appeal from telecommunications giants Verizon and AT&T challenged a combined $100 million in penalties imposed after the agency determined that the companies had failed to safeguard customer location data. The companies argued that the FCC’s process was unconstitutional because it gave them little opportunity to tell their side of the story in front of a jury. The administration defended the fines are an essential regulatory tool. But the government also said companies did not have to pay the penalties right away, a regulatory shift in the companies’ favor.

The Supreme Court agreed, affirming the FCC’s power to order fines when challenges are still available. “The orders at issue did not settle the carriers’ legal obligations because, stated simply, they did not create an obligation to pay,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. [...] Other agencies use similar enforcement methods, so a sweeping victory for AT&T and Verizon could have had widespread effects, advocates said.

Submission + - After empty promises, string theory finds new uses (science.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: For decades, string theory promised a “theory of everything” that described all particles and forces as tiny vibrating strings. Physicists hoped it could also solve one of the field’s deepest problems: reconciling quantum mechanics with gravity. But as string theory grew increasingly elaborate—and experimentally unreachable—many physicists lost hope.

Now, some researchers are revisiting the theory from first principles. In a paper in press at Physical Review Letters, Clifford Cheung, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology, and colleagues lay out a small set of assumptions about the universe and show that they inevitably give rise to string theory. The work is part of a broader revival of the “bootstrap” philosophy that inspired string theory in the first place: building up explanations from a small set of consistent, general principles rather than deriving laws from a particular mechanistic framework. “It’s a trend away from a specific model that someone came down from the mountain with on two tablets,” Cheung says. “People are kind of going back to the basics.”

The approach does not prove string theory is correct. But, “It’s quite remarkable that with fairly minimal assumptions you are led to string theory,” says Andrew Tolley, a physicist at Imperial College London who works on an alternative model of gravity. Clarifying what assumptions underlie the theory could help limit the range of possible versions of string theory and its competitors, he adds. “It’s tremendously interesting to know what is allowed or not.”

Submission + - Amazon's New Stargate Series Is Officially Dead (screenrant.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Amazon cancelled the new Stargate show.

The rumor is that the show writer, Martin Gero, would not budge on compromising lore or elements within the show for a "wider modern audience" as they did with Rings of Power for LoTR lore.

Martin Gero wanted to create a show that maintained continuity in the story and lore of the old shows, including the mythology and tech, while respecting the 17 seasons of history.

Amazon instead wanted something new for the "modern audience" that's more accessible, reimagined, with more modern casual sensibilities.

Because the showrunners wanted to maintain integrity rather than turn Stargate into another "modern audience slop" like Rings of Power, Amazon leadership canceled it. The franchise heavyweight, like Joseph Mallozzi, was very excited for the fresh stories Gero worked on. Amazon says they are still open to Stargate, just not "this" version... yes they wanted to Rings of Powerify Stargate.

We really can't hate these people enough.

Submission + - Apple is bringing age verification to Texas this week (theverge.com)

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: Apple will introduce age verification in the App Store for users in Texas starting on Thursday, June 4th. The move, as spotted by MacRumors, comes just days after a federal appeals court allowed Texas’ App Store Accountability Act to go into effect while a lawsuit against it proceeds.

People in Texas who are creating a new Apple account will need to verify they’re over 18 using a credit card or government ID. Apple may also automatically verify users’ age using the age of their account and whether they have a credit card on file.

Despite Apple’s attempts to push back on app store-level age verification, the company has announced plans to implement age checks to comply with laws in places like Utah, Louisiana, Brazil, Australia, Singapore, and the UK. Google is required to make similar changes to the Play Store and is also introducing age-checking tools for developers.

Last December, a judge blocked the App Store Accountability Act (SB 2420) from taking effect, but an appeals court has now reversed this decision — at least while the court figures out whether the law is constitutional. Even if this law gets struck down in Texas, a federal version with the same name is still making its way through Congress and could impose age verification at the app store nationwide.

Submission + - Google Ordered to Put Clearer Links In AI Search, Let UK Publishers Opt Out (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: UK regulators today ordered (PDF) Google to put clearer attributions and links to publishers’ content in its AI-generated search features. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) also said Google must give publishers a way to opt out of AI features in search. “In a world first, publishers will now have effective tools to prevent their content being used to power AI features in search, such as AI Overviews,” the CMA said today. “This will put publishers, like news organizations, in a stronger position to negotiate content deals with Google. To boost consumer trust, Google is also now required to make sure that publisher content is properly attributed, using clear links, in AIgenerated search results.”

The CMA ruled that Google may not penalize publishers for opting out of AI, meaning that Google can’t downrank opted-out publishers in general search results. The CMA said Google will have nine months to comply with all requirements but that the agency “expects important parts of the controls to become available to publishers well before that deadline. Google will also be required to submit and publish compliance reports, supported by key data and metrics, explaining changes it has made and how it has complied.” [...] The CMA applied the rules to Google after determining that it has “strategic market status” in general search services, and has ongoing investigations into Apple and Microsoft. Google today said it will comply with the CMA decision.

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