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Submission + - Sweden's crowd-forecasting platform 'Glimt' helps Ukraine make wartime predictio (france24.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Glimt is an open platform that relies on the theory of “crowd forecasting”: a method of making predictions based on surveying a large and diverse group of people and taking an average. "Glimt" is a Swedish word for "a glimpse" or "a sudden insight". The theory posits that the average of all collected predictions produces correct results with “uncanny accuracy”, according to the Glimt website. Such “collective intelligence” is used today for everything from election results to extreme weather events, Glimt said.

Submission + - Ukraine Drones Destroy Dozens of Russian Aircraft (foxnews.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The brazen Ukrainian blitz of Russian warplanes Sunday was 18 months in the making and the Pentagon was kept in the dark until it was over, sources told Fox News.

"Operation Spider's Web," a series of coordinated drone strikes penetrating deep into Russian territory, is believed to have taken out dozens of Russia's most powerful bomber jets and surveillance planes as they sat idle on five military airfields.

The stunning operation was personally overseen by President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s security service (SBU) said.

Ukraine used small FPV drones hidden inside wooden cabins mounted on trucks. When the trucks reached their targets, the roofs opened by remote control, and the drones launched.

Submission + - AI has hallucinated a complete academic journal (medium.com)

Submitted by arctother
arctother writes: Fake, AI-generated references have made it into published academic articles, leading AI bots to generate further citations of the same, non-existent journals. Meet "Disaster Studies Quarterly," a completely hallucinated academic journal, with a growing list of citations; Google and Perplexity.AI both take the bait, promising an endless feedback loop of misinformation based on previous hallucinations.

Submission + - Musk's Space Tesla "recovered"? 2

Submitted by RockDoctor
RockDoctor writes: Chatter on the "Minor Planets Mailing List" (an email list for people interested in the "small bodies" of the Solar system) indicate that the Tesla Roadster polluting interplanetary space since being dumped there in 2018 has been spotted again. Telescopes in four countries reported the object. From the object's brightness, it appears to remain attached to the Falcon upper stage.

Initially, the object was misidentified as a minor planet, but once there were sufficient observations to establish it's orbit, it's identity as a "rediscovery" of "2018-017A" was established. Since the object is not natural, it is of no further interest to the astronomers and the last batch of data have been assigned to "artificial object 2018-017A, Falcon Heavy Upper stage with the Tesla roadster". Some people here might be interested though.
"Is it coming back?"
Yes, as it does every 1.525 years. This will be it's 4th return.
"Will it hit us?"
No. This time around, it'll be about 0.1 years behind Earth where it crosses Earth's orbit, which would be about 94 million km away. The closest it'll come back is about 240 thousand km away — about 2/3 of the Earth-Moon distance.

I'm not sure if Elon left the keys in the ignition. Recovering it to Earth would be an amusing trick for Bezos. There should be no legal issues since the object was clearly abandoned by it's owner. Set your diaries for 2065-ish.

Submission + - China Proposes Further Export Curbs On Battery, Critical Minerals Tech (reuters.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: China's commerce ministry has proposed export restrictions on some technology used to make battery components and process critical minerals lithium and gallium, a document, opens new tab issued on Thursday showed. If implemented, they would be the latest in a series of export restrictions and bans targeting critical minerals and the technology used to process them, areas in which Beijing is globally dominant. Their announcement precedes the inauguration later this month of Donald Trump for a second term during which he is expected to use tariffs and various trade restrictions against other countries, in particular China. [...]

The proposed expansion and revisions of restrictions on technology used to extract and process lithium or prepare battery components could also hinder the overseas expansion plans of major Chinese battery makers, including CATL, Gotion, and EVE Energy. Some technologies to extract gallium would also be restricted. Thursday's announcement does not say when the proposed changes, which are open for public comment until Feb. 1, could come into force.

Submission + - LA Police Computers fail at start of New Year (latimes.com)

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: The department said it eventually determined its computer-aided dispatch program — known as CAD — was “not allowing personnel to log on with the new year, making the CAD inoperable.”

Submission + - Your In-Store Whole Foods Purchases Are Now Listed In Your Amazon Account

Submitted by FairAndUnbalanced
FairAndUnbalanced writes: In what could be an un-welcome surprise to those sharing their Amazon Prime cards with spouses or others, Amazon is now displaying your in-store Whole Foods purchases under the "Your Orders" section of the associated Amazon.com account. Any in-store purchases that you made in Whole Foods stores using your Amazon Prime credit card, or by scanning the QR code from the Whole Foods app, show up, and all in-store purchases as far back as mid-2020 are displayed.
There appears to be no press release or formal announcement about this change.

Submission + - Space Station keeps dodging debris from China's 2007 satellite weapon test (msn.com)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: The International Space Station had to fire thrusters from a docked spacecraft last month to avoid a piece of debris that has been circling the globe for the nearly 18 years since the Chinese government blasted apart one of its own satellites in a weapons test.

The evasive maneuver was the second in just six days for the space station, which has four NASA astronauts and three Russian cosmonauts aboard. That is the shortest interval ever between such actions, illustrating the slowly worsening problem of space junk in orbit. Debris is an increasingly vexing issue not only for NASA, but also for companies such as SpaceX and OneWeb seeking to protect the thousands of small satellites they send into space to provide high-speed internet.

Submission + - Of Mice and Men removed from GCSE course over racial slurs (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Welsh exam board picks removes John Steinbeck’s novella following concerns of ‘psychological and emotional’ harm

John Steinbeck’s classic novella Of Mice and Men will no longer be studied in Wales at GCSE level because of the book’s racial slurs.

WJEC, the Cardiff-based Welsh exam board, said it has instead selected “a wide range” of “appropriate and inclusive texts” for students.

Submission + - Energy Prices Drop Below Zero in UK Thanks to Record Wind-Generated Electricity (ecowatch.com) 1

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: Record wind-generated electricity across Northern Ireland and Scotland Tuesday night pushed Britain’s power prices below zero.

Wind output peaked at a record high 22.4 gigawatts (GW), breaking the previous high set Sunday evening, the national system operator said, as Bloomberg reported. The record output provided more than 68 percent of the country’s power.

From 5:30 to 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday, the half-hourly price fell to 6.57 pounds per megawatt-hour, according to data from European power exchange Epex Spot.

Submission + - AI cameras are giving Washington DC's air defense a major upgrade (cyberguy.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In the wake of 9/11, Washington D.C.’s airspace got a significant security boost. Now, over two decades later, this system is getting a cutting-edge makeover. The National Capital Region (NCR) is rolling out an advanced artificial intelligence-based visual recognition system that’s taking air defense to a whole new level.

The Enhanced Regional Situational Awareness (ERSA) system represents a dramatic upgrade from previous security technologies. These new cameras are giving air defense operators unprecedented capabilities in monitoring and protecting critical airspace. They come with some seriously cool features that take air defense to the next level. The cameras boast infrared vision with RGB filters for heat signature detection, allowing operators to spot targets even in low visibility conditions. A laser range finder provides accurate distance and altitude measurements, enhancing the system’s precision. Machine learning elements enable enhanced auto-tracking capabilities, making it easier to follow objects of interest. Additionally, a visual warning system is in place to alert non-compliant aircraft, using red and green lasers to illuminate cockpits and prompt immediate action from pilots.

Submission + - Say goodbye to your privacy (dailygalaxy.com) 3

Submitted by mspohr
mspohr writes: Google is rolling out a tracking system unlike anything youâ(TM)ve seen beforeâ"your browser, smart TV, and even gaming consoles could all be part of the plan. Privacy experts are raising alarms, calling this a game-changer for how your data is used.

Googleâs ad-tracking approach will now revolve around digital fingerprinting, moving beyond browser-based cookies to an ecosystem-wide tracking mechanism. Starting February 16, 2024, this update allows Google to track users across virtually all smart devices, from browsers to smart TVs, streaming platforms, and gaming consoles. This shift, touted as a response to technological advancements, has sparked fierce regulatory criticism and raised privacy alarms globally.

Unlike cookiesâ"which rely on stored files that users can deleteâ"digital fingerprinting gathers subtle clues from a deviceâ(TM)s hardware, software, and browsing activity. These clues include:

Device attributes: screen resolution, operating system, browser type, and even font libraries.
Network identifiers: IP address, connected Wi-Fi networks, and geolocation data.
Behavioral patterns: app usage, browsing habits, and engagement metrics.
When combined, this data creates a unique identifier that tracks individuals across devices and platforms. The UK Information Commissionerâ(TM)s Office (ICO) has openly criticized this approach, stating, âoeFingerprinting involves the collection of pieces of information about a deviceâ(TM)s software or hardware, which, when combined, can uniquely identify a particular device and user.â

Submission + - Arctic Siberia summers were up to 10C warmer than today during Last Interglacia (phys.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Interglacials are, as the name suggests, warm periods between planetary glaciations when the expanse of ice on Earth shrinks. Currently, we are in an 11,000 year-long interglacial period known as the Holocene. Prior to this, the Last Interglacial occurred between 115,000 and 130,000 years ago.

During this time, Earth experienced summers that were almost completely ice-free and there was significant vegetation growth in polar regions, changing the ecosystems for life to flourish. Scientists can look to this Last Interglacial as a potential analog for future global warming.

Indeed, new research, currently under review for publication in the Climate of the Past journal, has turned to the geological record of the Arctic to understand how terrestrial environments responded to the warmer world. Here, warming was amplified compared to the rest of the northern hemisphere due to ice albedo feedbacks, whereby solar insolation melted ice sheets, reducing the amount of radiation reflected back out to space and causing further warming, creating a positive feedback loop.

Submission + - Colorado Voting Machine Passwords Found Online (x.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Jena Griswold's office confirmed that it did happen and that “the Department is working to remedy this situation where necessary.”

“The Department took immediate action as soon as it was aware of this and informed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which closely monitors and protects the county’s essential security infrastructure,”

Submission + - 'Alien' Signal Decoded (esa.int)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: White dots arranged in five clusters against a black background (PNG). This is the simulated extraterrestrial signal transmitted from Mars and deciphered by a father and a daughter on Earth after a year-long decoding effort. On June 7, 2024, media artist Daniela de Paulis received this simple, retro-looking image depicting five amino acids in her inbox. It was the solution to a cosmic puzzle beamed from ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) in May 2023, when the European spacecraft played alien as part of the multidisciplinary art project ‘A Sign in Space.' After three radio astronomy observatories on Earth intercepted the signal, the challenge was first to extract the message from the raw data of the radio signal, and secondly to decode it. In just 10 days, a community of 5000 citizen scientists gathered online and managed to extract the signal. The second task took longer and required some visionary minds.

US citizens Ken and Keli Chaffin cracked the code following their intuition and running simulations for hours and days on end. The father and daughter team discovered that the message contained movement, suggesting some sort of cellular formation and life forms. Amino acids and proteins are the building blocks of life. Now that the cryptic signal has been deciphered, the quest for meaning begins. The interpretation of the message, like any art piece, remains open. Daniela crafted the message with a small group of astronomers and computer scientists, with support from ESA, the SETI Institute and the Green Bank Observatory. The artist and collaborators behind the project are now taking a step back and witnessing how citizen scientists are shaping the challenge on their own.

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