Submission + - NASA pushes moon mission to April or later amid new technical issue (nhk.or.jp)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: NASA says it will likely postpone until April or later a mission to send astronauts around the moon, citing a newly discovered technical issue. The agency had initially targeted a February launch, later pushed to March 6 at the earliest because of fuel leaks.

The mission is part of the US-led Artemis lunar exploration program, which includes Japan and several European partners.

NASA announced the latest delay on Saturday, attributing it to an interruption in the flow of helium needed to maintain the proper environmental conditions for the engine in the rocket's upper stage.

Officials say an April launch remains possible if the repairs proceed smoothly.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman acknowledged the repeated delays have disappointed many, and expressed determination to push the program forward.

Submission + - DHS billion-dollar contract with Palantir (wired.com)

Submitted by sinij
sinij writes:

According to contracting documents published last week, the blanket purchase agreement (BPA) awarded "is to provide Palantir commercial software licenses, maintenance, and implementation services department wide." The agreement simplifies how DHS buys software from Palantir, allowing DHS agencies like Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to essentially skip the competitive bidding process for new purchases of up to $1 billion in products and services from the company.

People with "nothing to hide" approach to privacy should start rethinking their position.

Submission + - Social media purposefully designed to get children addicted

Submitted by Mirnotoriety
Mirnotoriety writes: Sydney Watson: “Social media platforms used and continue to use the same principles a casino does to addict people to gambling and it has continued to work like a charm. I wish I could say this is a joke but it's not. There is an actual lawsuit happening right now in California where Meta and Google are effectively on trial for treating their platforms like digital casinos and purposefully getting children addicted to them like like gambling. So yes, the screen is by and large distracting Jen Z in particular from actual learning experiences and growth. So in so far as that, yes, this part is true.”

“Entertainment companies these days are kind of like drug dealers. They are feeding one of your addictions while the screens and the social media companies are feeding the other addiction. Arguably, probably the worst addiction. We are addicted to addiction. And I hate it here. Like I've laid out in this video, it's pretty clear that television and film are absolutely getting dumber because it's much safer to be background noise than to not be watched at all. And because of this incredibly depressing reality, entertainment is now being produced that absolutely scrapes the bottom of the barrel as far as storytelling goes and really basically anything of substance goes. There's no need to put in meaningful effort because it's probably going to be missed anyway.

And that actually makes me incredibly sad. I don't pretend to be some sort of cinema wiz or, you know, cinema file nerd person who can say anything and everything there is to say about entertainment, but I am a layman who watches film and television. And I am incredibly disappointed by what's on offer today. And I do think it's quite funny, and I want to make note of this.”

Submission + - Code.org President Steps Down, Citing 'Upending' of CS by AI

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Last July, as Microsoft pledged $4 billion to advance AI education in K-12 schools, Microsoft President Brad Smith told Code.org CEO and Founder Hadi Partovi (Smith's next-door neighbor) that it was time for the tech-backed nonprofit to "switch hats" from coding to AI, adding that "the last 12 years have been about the Hour of Code, but the future involves the Hour of AI."

On Friday, Code.org announced leadership changes to make it so. "Today, I want to share a significant update regarding the leadership of Code.org," Partovi wrote on LinkedIn. After 13 years of truly exceptional service, my co-founder, partner and friend Cameron Wilson [who Smith and Google.org Chief Maggie Johnson personally asked to join Code.org] is transitioning to an executive advisor role with the organization. [...] I am thrilled to announce that Karim Meghji will be stepping into the role of President & CEO. Having worked closely with Karim over the last 3.5 years as our CPO, I have complete confidence that he possesses the perfect balance of historical context and 'founder-level' energy to lead us into an AI-centric future. For the past two years, I have been operating primarily as Chairman while Cameron handled CEO responsibilities. With Karim’s appointment, my title will be updated to better reflect my contributions and commitment to this organization as Chairman of the Board."

In a separate LinkedIn post, Wilson explained why he was stepping down: "Our community is entering a new chapter as AI changes and upends computer science as a discipline and society at large. Code.org’s mission is still the same, however, we are starting a new chapter focused on ensuring students can thrive in the Age of AI. This new chapter will bring new opportunities, new problems to solve, and new communities to engage. As Code.org enters this new chapter I’ve made the decision to step down from leading Code.org, move into an Executive Advisor role."

The Code.org leadership changes come just weeks after the K-12 CS and newly AI-focused education nonprofit confirmed it had laid off about 14% of its staff, explaining it had "made the difficult decision to part ways with 18 colleagues as part of efforts to ensure our long-term sustainability [Code.org revenue]." January also saw Code.org Chief Academic Officer Pat Yongpradit jump to Microsoft where he now helps "lead Microsoft's global strategy to put people first in an age of AI by shaping education and workforce policy" as a member of Microsoft's Global Education and Workforce Policy team, which reports up to Microsoft President Brad Smith.

Submission + - You have 18 months to figure out your office job (fortune.com) 1

Submitted by ZipNada
ZipNada writes: Gopal said that arguably, many businesses exist that AI can never be trained on, “because this is real-life business that moves.” Real people who have conversations and continually update a business context will always be one step ahead of the machines, he explained. “Are you going to retrain for that one individual conversation for one day?” he asked, and then retrain on a rolling basis every time your business context changes?

Gopal was bearish about how much this context can be captured, estimating that 70% of the effort required to make AI useful relies entirely on unwritten business context that exists only in human heads. “You fundamentally cannot train a system” on this fluid daily reality, Gopal explained, noting that real-life business constantly changes based on individual conversations and human interactions. While AI can automate tasks at the absolute top (coding) and the absolute bottom (physical robotics), the vast middle ground of knowledge work requires human context.

Submission + - Russia Orders Google to Pay $1.2 Quintillion (united24media.com) 1

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: Russia’s Supreme Court has upheld a ruling ordering Google to pay an extraordinary 91.5 quintillion rubles (about $1.2 quintillion)—a figure roughly one million times larger than the global gross domestic product, according to court materials, The Moscow Times reported on February 18. The Moscow Arbitration Court set the final penalty of 91.5 quintillion rubles ($1.2 quintillion) in spring 2025. For comparison, the World Bank estimates total global GDP at roughly $100 trillion, making the court-ordered sum vastly larger than the value of the entire world economy.

The legal dispute dates back to 2020, when pro-Kremlin media outlets Tsargrad and RIA FAN sued Google entities—including Google LLC, Google Ireland, and the Russian subsidiary “Google”—demanding restoration of their blocked YouTube accounts.

Russian courts sided with the plaintiffs, but Google did not comply with the ruling. Judges then imposed a progressive daily penalty that began at 100,000 rubles (about $1,315) and doubled each week the decision remained unenforced.

Submission + - Mysterious spikes in Earth's 'heartbeat' are scrambling human brains with an eer (dailymail.co.uk)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: Earth's natural 'humming' vibration has experienced a series of unusual spikes in recent weeks, raising questions about whether the phenomenon could influence mood and cognition.

Known as the Schumann Resonance, this vibration is often described as the Earth's 'heartbeat,' a steady electromagnetic rhythm generated by lightning and trapped between the planet's surface and the ionosphere.

Submission + - FCC is investigating 'The View' over 'equal time' rule (pbs.org)

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: The Federal Communications Commission is investigating ABC's "The View" over possible violations of the requirement that broadcast stations give equal time to political candidates when they appear on-air, according to the head of the agency that oversees U.S. broadcast airwaves.

Submission + - Robot clean-up crews tackle litter on Europe's seabed (phys.org)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: EU researchers are developing AI-guided robot fleets to take over the dangerous, dirty work of finding and removing marine litter from the sea floor. A ship with a crane floats in the Mediterranean sun at a marina in Marseille, France. The crane whirs as it hauls waste from the seabed and, when the wire breaks the surface, the gripper at the end is clutching a rubber tire covered in algae.

Submission + - Lion DNA helps convict poachers for first time (bbc.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Lion DNA has been used to successfully prosecute poachers for the first time in the world, it has emerged.

Wildlife crime experts have only just revealed how they were able to identify the individual animal from body parts found in a suspect's village, as they matched a profile on Zimbabwe's lion database.

A blood sample had previously been taken from the male lion, which was being tracked by authorities in Hwange National Park — using a radio collar.

Submission + - Atom-thin electronics withstand space radiation for centuries (phys.org)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Atom-thick layers of molybdenum disulfide are ideally suited for radiation-resistant spacecraft electronics, researchers in China have confirmed. In a study published in Nature, Peng Zhou and colleagues at Fudan University put a communications system composed of the material through a gauntlet of rigorous tests—including the transmission of their university's Anthem—confirming that its performance is barely affected in the harsh environment of outer space.

Submission + - Email blunder exposes $90bn Russian oil smuggling ring (ft.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Financial Times has identified 48 seemingly independent companies working from different physical addresses that appear to be operating together to disguise the origin of Russian oil, particularly from Kremlin-controlled Rosneft. The network was discovered because they all share a single private email server.

Submission + - Malware pre-installed on TV streaming boxes

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Who Operates the Badbox 2.0 Botnet?

“The cybercriminals in control of Kimwolf — a disruptive botnet that has infected more than 2 million devices — recently shared a screenshot indicating they’d compromised the control panel for Badbox 2.0, a vast China-based botnet powered by malicious software that comes pre-installed on many Android TV streaming boxes. Both the FBI and Google say they are hunting for the people behind Badbox 2.0, and thanks to bragging by the Kimwolf botmasters we may now have a much clearer idea about that.”

Submission + - Eradicating Fujitsu and Horizon from the Post Office

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Eradicating Fujitsu and Horizon from the Post Office, step by step

“Decommissioning and replacing an IT system that has caused irreparable harm to thousands of people is not the usual job description of an incoming chief technology officer (CTO), but that’s what Paul Anastassi signed up for when he took on the role at the Post Office.”

Submission + - Microsoft: Anti-phishing rules mistakenly blocked emails, Teams messages (bleepingcomputer.com)

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: Microsoft says an Exchange Online issue that mistakenly quarantined legitimate emails last week was triggered by faulty heuristic detection rules designed to block credential phishing campaigns. The incident, tracked by Microsoft under EX1227432, began on February 5 and was not fully resolved until February 12. During that period, users across Exchange Online and Microsoft Teams were unable to open links in messages, with some of their emails quarantined entirely.

Administrators also received warnings that a "potentially malicious URL click was detected," alerts that Microsoft later confirmed were false positives. Other security tools within Microsoft's detection infrastructure also amplified the incident's impact, and a separate bug in the company's security signature systems further delayed efforts to roll back the flawed detection rules. "This issue occurred due to a logic error in a heuristic detection aimed at novel credential phishing campaigns that spiked several hours after release," Microsoft explained.

While this preliminary report was published on Monday, Microsoft said that it will issue a final report within five business days of full resolution.

Slashdot Top Deals