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Submission + - Many International Game Developers Plan To Skip GDC In US (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This week, tens of thousands of game developers and producers will once again gather in San Francisco, as they have since 1988, for the weeklong Game Developers Conference. But this year’s show will be missing many international developers who say they no longer feel comfortable traveling to the United States to attend, no matter how relevant the show is to their work and careers. Dozens of those developers who spoke to Ars in recent months say they’re wary of traveling to a country that has shown a callous disregard for—or outright hostility toward—the safety of international travelers. That’s especially true for developers from various minority groups, those with transgender identities, and those who feel they could be targeted for outspoken political beliefs. “I honestly don’t know anyone who is not from the US who is planning on going to the next GDC,” Godot Foundation Executive Director Emilio Coppola, who’s based in Spain, told Ars. “We never felt super safe, but now we are not willing to risk it.”

Submission + - A new California law says Linux must verify user age at startup (pcgamer.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: The government of California is implementing a law that requires operating system providers to implement some form of age verification into their account setup procedures.

Assembly Bill No. 1043 was approved by California governor Gavin Newsom in October of last year, and becomes active on January 1, 2027 (via The Lunduke Journal). The bill states, among other factors, that "An operating system provider shall do all of the following:"

"(1) Provide an accessible interface at account setup that requires an account holder to indicate the birth date, age, or both, of the user of that device for the purpose of providing a signal regarding the user’s age bracket to applications available in a covered application store.

"(2) Provide a developer who has requested a signal with respect to a particular user with a digital signal via a reasonably consistent real-time application programming interface that identifies, at a minimum, which of the following categories pertains to the user."

The categories are broken into four sections: users under 13 years of age, over 13 years of age under 16, at least 16 years of age and under 18, and "at least 18 years of age."

Submission + - Galileo's handwritten notes found in ancient astronomy text (science.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: On a cloudy day in January, historian Ivan Malara sat in Italy’s National Central Library of Florence poring over seven 16th century printings of the ancient world’s most influential astronomy text. The pages belonged to The Almagest, in which second century polymath Claudius Ptolemy described his vision of an Earth-centered cosmos. As Malara flipped through the pages, he spotted something out of place. Someone had transcribed Psalm 145 on an otherwise blank page—in handwriting reminiscent of a very, very famous Tuscan astronomer.

That book, Malara came to realize, had been extensively annotated by none other than Galileo Galilei. Malara’s discovery, described in a paper now under review at the Journal for the History of Astronomy, promises new insights into one of the most famous ideological transitions in the history of science: the moment when Earth was thrust from the center of our universe.

Submission + - US Blocks All Offshore Wind Construction, Says Reason Is Classified (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: On Monday, the US Department of the Interior announced that it was pausing the leases on all five offshore wind sites currently under construction in the US. The move comes despite the fact that these projects already have installed significant hardware in the water and on land; one of them is nearly complete. In what appears to be an attempt to avoid legal scrutiny, the Interior is blaming the decisions on a classified report from the Department of Defense.

The second Trump administration announced its animosity toward offshore wind power literally on day one, issuing an executive order on inauguration day that called for a temporary halt to issuing permits for new projects pending a re-evaluation. Earlier this month, however, a judge vacated that executive order, noting that the government has shown no indication that it was even attempting to start the re-evaluation it said was needed. But a number of projects have gone through the entire permitting process, and construction has started. Before today, the administration had attempted to stop these in an erratic, halting manner. Empire Wind, an 800 MW farm being built off New York, was stopped by the Department of the Interior, which alleged that it had been rushed through permitting. That hold was lifted following lobbying and negotiations by New York and the project developer Orsted, and the Department of the Interior never revealed why it changed its mind. When the Interior Department blocked a second Orsted project, Revolution Wind offshore of southern New England, the company took the government to court and won a ruling that let it continue construction.

Today’s announcement targets those and three other projects. Interior says it is pausing the permits for all five, which are the only projects currently under construction. It claims that offshore wind creates “national security risks” that were revealed in a recent analysis performed by the Department of Defense, which apparently neglected to identify these issues during the evaluations it did while the projects were first permitted. What are these risks? The Interior Department is being extremely coy. It notes that offshore wind turbines can interfere with radar sensing, but that’s been known for a while. In announcing the decision, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum also noted “the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies.” But the announcement says that the Defense Department analysis is classified, meaning nobody is likely to know what the actual reason is—presuming one exists. The classification will also make it far more challenging to contest this decision in court.

Submission + - This AI finds simple rules where humans see only chaos (sciencedaily.com) 1

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: A new AI developed at Duke University can uncover simple, readable rules behind extremely complex systems. It studies how systems evolve over time and reduces thousands of variables into compact equations that still capture real behavior. The method works across physics, engineering, climate science, and biology. Researchers say it could help scientists understand systems where traditional equations are missing or too complicated to write down.

Submission + - Public Domain Day 2026

Submitted by davidwr
davidwr writes: January 1, 2026 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1930 are open to all, as are sound recordings from 1925!
By Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle CC BY 4.0
On January 1, 2026, thousands of copyrighted works from 1930 enter the US public domain, along with sound recordings from 1925. They will be free for all to copy, share, and build upon. The literary highlights range from William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying to Agatha Christie’s The Murder at the Vicarage and the first four Nancy Drew novels. From cartoons and comic strips, the characters Betty Boop, Pluto (originally named Rover), and Blondie and Dagwood made their first appearances. Films from the year featured Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, the Marx Brothers, and John Wayne in his first leading role. Among the public domain compositions are I Got Rhythm, Georgia on My Mind, and Dream a Little Dream of Me. We are also celebrating paintings from Piet Mondrian and Paul Klee.


—

Last year's Slashdot coverage included Tintin, Popeye Enter Public Domain as 1929 Works Released (Jan 1) and Internet Archive Celebrates New Public Domain Works with Remixes in Short Film Contest (Feb. 8).

Submission + - Crypto ATMs Are Largely For Crime (cnn.com) 1

Submitted by atrimtab
atrimtab writes: Cryptocurrency ATMs located in gas stations and convenience stores across the U.S. are increasingly associated with fraud, leaving victims with little recourse.

These machines, while advertising low service fees, often charge exorbitant transaction costs exceeding 20% by inflating the prices of current Crypto coins being bought by customers.

Victims of scams facilitated through these ATMs face challenges in recovering their funds, as Crypto ATM companies are often unwilling to reimburse losses. Law enforcement attempts to seize funds from these machines have been met with legal action from the companies, further hindering victim recovery.

Some industry insiders suggest the profitability of these Crypto ATM companies relies on illegal activity, and efforts are underway to influence state legislation, potentially making it even more difficult for victims to reclaim their money.

Submission + - Young Journalists Drone, Expose Russian Ships Off Dutch-German Coasts (digitaldigging.org)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Seven German journalism students, as a continuation of their OSINT course project, tracked the movements of ships with Russian crews off the coasts of the Netherlands and Germany and linked them to swarms of drones appearing over European military airfields and other strategic sites.

The guys not only analyzed thousands of data points, but also used leaked documents, established connections with sources in European agencies, and drove 2,500 km across three countries chasing one of the ships – even launching their own drone to fly over it.

At the end of the article, there’s precise data on the vessels, so you can follow them yourself.

Submission + - AI Agents Casually Rob $4.6 Million (In Simulation), Cost $3,476 To Run (anthropic.com)

Submitted by weiyeh
weiyeh writes: Remember when we worried about script kiddies? Meet their AI-powered, profit-optimizing successors. Researchers from Anthropic and the MATS program have released SCONE-bench, a benchmark showing that AI agents can now autonomously exploit blockchain smart contracts—and they're getting scary good at it. From the research report:

"On contracts exploited after March 2025 (beyond the models' training data), Claude Opus 4.5, Claude Sonnet 4.5, and GPT-5 developed working exploits worth a collective $4.6 million in simulated stolen funds. The top performer, Opus 4.5, successfully compromised 50% of these contracts."

Submission + - Fish-inspired filter removes 99% of microplastics from washing machine wastewate (techxplore.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Some fish feed by means of filtration; these include, for example, mackerel, sardines, and anchovies. They swim through the water with their mouths open and sift out the plankton with their gill arch system. "We took a closer look at the construction of this system and used it as the model for developing a filter that can be used in washing machines," says Blanke, who is a member of the transdisciplinary research areas Life & Health and Sustainable Futures at the University of Bonn.

During their evolution, these fish have developed a technique similar to cross-flow filtration. Their gill arch system is shaped like a funnel that is widest at the fish's mouth and tapers towards their gullet. The walls of the funnel are shaped by the branchial arches. These feature comb-like structures, the arches, which are themselves covered in small teeth. This creates a kind of mesh that is stretched by the branchial arches.

The filter element in the center imitates the gill arch system of the fish. The filter housing enables periodic cleaning and installation in washing machines.

"During food intake, the water flows through the permeable funnel wall, is filtered, and the particle-free water is then released back into the environment via the gills," explains Blanke. "However, the plankton is too big for this; it is held back by the natural sieve structure. Thanks to the funnel shape, it then rolls toward the gullet, where it is collected until the fish swallows, which empties and cleans the system."

This principle prevents the filter from being blocked—instead of hitting the filter head-on, the fibers roll along it toward the gullet. The process is also highly effective, as it removes almost all of the plankton from the water. Both are aspects that a microplastic filter must also be able to deliver. The researchers thus replicated the gill arch system. In doing so, they varied both the mesh size of the sieve structure and the opening angle of the funnel.

"We have thus found a combination of parameters that enable our filter to separate more than 99% of the microplastics out of the water but not become blocked," says Hamann. To achieve this, the team used not only experiments but also computer simulations. The filter modeled on nature does not contain any elaborate mechanics and should thus be very inexpensive to manufacture.

The microplastics that it filters out of the washing water collect in the filter outlet and are then suctioned away several times a minute. According to the researcher, who has now moved to the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, they could then, for example, be pressed in the machine to remove the remaining water. The plastic pellet created in this manner could then be removed every few dozen washes and disposed of with general waste.

Comment Re:yay (Score 1) 58

by ISayWeOnlyToBePolite (#65839341) Attached to: 'Rage Bait' Named Oxford Word of the Year 2025

Using /. as an empirical example, people are behaving poorly. A decade ago you'd never see personal attacks moderated up just because it was politically aligned with the person moderating. Today such behavior (both attacking and partisan moderation) is commonplace. People are just less civil. I see this as symptom of de-cohesion - no shared values, no imperative to act civil.

How do you know this to be true and what steps could I take to verify the claim? Here's a cherry picked "Hillary Clinton Declares 2016 Democratic Presidential Bid" slashdot article from a decade ago (April 2015) https://politics.slashdot.org/... for illustration.

Submission + - NASA Is Tracking a Vast Anomaly Growing in Earth's Magnetic Field (sciencealert.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: For years, NASA has monitored a strange anomaly in Earth's magnetic field: a giant region of lower magnetic intensity in the skies, stretching out between South America and southwest Africa.

This vast, developing phenomenon, called the South Atlantic Anomaly, has intrigued and concerned scientists for decades, and perhaps none more so than NASA researchers.

The space agency's satellites and spacecraft are particularly vulnerable to the weakened magnetic field within the anomaly, and the resulting exposure to charged particles from the Sun.

Submission + - Owning a Cat Could Double Your Risk of Schizophrenia, Research Suggests (sciencealert.com) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Having a cat as a pet could potentially double a person's risk of schizophrenia-related conditions, according to an analysis of 17 studies.

Psychiatrist John McGrath and colleagues at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research in Australia looked at papers published over the last 44 years in 11 countries, including the US and the UK.

Their 2023 review found "a significant positive association between broadly defined cat ownership and an increased risk of schizophrenia-related disorders."

T. gondii is a mostly harmless parasite that can be transmitted through undercooked meat or contaminated water. It can also be transmitted through an infected cat's feces.

Estimates suggest that T. gondii infects about 40 million people in the US, typically without any symptoms. Meanwhile, researchers keep finding more strange effects that infections may have.

Once inside our bodies, T. gondii can infiltrate the central nervous system and influence neurotransmitters. The parasite has been linked to personality changes, the emergence of psychotic symptoms, and some neurological disorders, including schizophrenia.

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Today's scientific question is: What in the world is electricity? And where does it go after it leaves the toaster? -- Dave Barry, "What is Electricity?"

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