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Submission + - The internet was supposed to be free. What went wrong? (dw.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: The utopia didn't last long. Early tech enthusiasts quickly realized how to monetize this collective consciousness by developing search engines, algorithms and collecting data.

"We see this in the ideology of early Facebook. The intention was very much like: 'Let me grab all of this data without permission and use it to build something that I can monetize'," says Mejias.

"We've moved from an age of connection to an age of extraction," Turner adds. "Digital media have become mining industries. We are now like oil or coal â" embedded in a social ground that corporations extract from and sell back to us as products and advertising."

Submission + - Thorny issue plaguing lithium-ion batteries laid bare in new study (phys.org)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Lithium dendrites, i.e. tiny crystalline thorns that grow off of lithium-ion battery anodes during charging, have been a persistent challenge for the world's most widely used form of energy storage. "Dendrites can penetrate the battery's separator, causing catastrophic short circuits and safety hazards," said Qing Ai, a former research scientist at Rice University who is a first author on a new study published in Science that reports for the first time exactly how these tricky structures behave inside batteries. "Despite decades of study, the fundamental nanomechanical properties of lithium dendrites remained a mystery—until now."

Submission + - Moscow residents turn to pagers, printed maps as "whitelist" enforced (kyivindependent.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Authorities in Moscow have introduced a "whitelist" system that allows access only to selected websites during ongoing mobile internet outages, pro-government outlet Kommersant reported on March 13, citing unnamed sources.

Pro-government outlet Moscow-24 reported a surge in demand for alternative communication devices, including pagers, walkie-talkies, and landline phones.

Sales of printed atlases and travel guides have also increased. Between March 6 and March 10, purchases reportedly rose by 48% compared with the previous week.

Submission + - Russia and Ukraine wage high-tech war in the 'death zone' (dw.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Traditional shelters and trenches no longer offer protection in this war, he said: "The entire infantry — both Ukrainian and enemy soldiers — are digging into underground tunnels to remain out of reach of attack of the drones."

To spot traces of the enemy, he said, the brigade members carefully "read signs on the ground from the sky." They hunt for subtle clues: trash left on the streets of abandoned villages, freshly churned earth in gardens, a small pile of wood in the middle of a yard.

As soon as his brigade discovers a Russian hideout, combat drones are sent there. "Russia does the same thing," Thunder said. "Whoever has the best hideouts and the upper hand with drones dominates."

Submission + - Analysis of 1,000 Tinder profiles reveals nine standard pose types (phys.org)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Choosing a Tinder profile picture may feel like a free, personal and creative act. But how true is that? A new study from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) shows that, far from being unique, most users follow one of a small number of visual strategies. The research, led by Alejandro García Alamán, a member of the CIRCLE Lab and instructor at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, identifies nine standardized profile types that recur systematically on these platforms.
User Journal

Journal Journal: The Metallica Problem 1

Journal by alternative_right

The Metallica Problem occurs when an information-product like music, books, or cinema adapts to what its audience wants, which is by definition less focused than what the original creators envisioned, and so you end up with the same old slop that made shows like "C.H.I.P.S." and "Happy Days" so bonebrained moronic back in the day.

Submission + - Superagers' 'Secret Ingredient' May Be The Growth of New Brain Cells (sciencealert.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: According to a study of 38 adult human brains donated to science, superagers – people who retain exceptional memory as they age – have roughly twice as many immature neurons as their peers who age more typically.

Moreover, people with Alzheimer's disease show a marked reduction in neurogenesis compared to a normal baseline.

Submission + - Workers who love 'synergizing paradigms' might be bad at their jobs (phys.org) 1

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Employees who are impressed by vague corporate-speak like "synergistic leadership," or "growth-hacking paradigms" may struggle with practical decision-making, a new Cornell study reveals. Published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, research by cognitive psychologist Shane Littrell introduces the Corporate Bullshit Receptivity Scale (CBSR), a tool designed to measure susceptibility to impressive-but-empty organizational rhetoric.

Comment The Metallica Problem (Score 1) 102

The Metallica Problem occurs when an information-product like music, books, or cinema adapts to what its audience wants, which is by definition less focused than what the original creators envisioned, and so you end up with the same old slop that made shows like "C.H.I.P.S." and "Happy Days" so bonebrained moronic back in the day.

The fact is, the 1976 movie was fun: a triumph of integrating character drama with humor, action, and Buck Rogers style sci-fi. Everything since has been mediocre but because the audience was there with lots of money to hand to them, the studios cruised on it.

What happened in 1999 or so was that The Metallica Problem took over and Star Wars became standard slop with a sci-fi adventure flavor, even with Lucas at the helm. The fanbase shaped the movies into the usual junk without intending to.

Submission + - For the first time, light mimics a Nobel Prize quantum effect (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Scientists have pulled off a feat long considered out of reach: getting light to mimic the famous quantum Hall effect. In their experiment, photons drift sideways in perfectly defined, quantized steps—just like electrons do in powerful magnetic fields. Because these steps depend only on nature’s fundamental constants, they could become a new gold standard for ultra-precise measurements. The discovery also hints at tougher, more reliable quantum photonic technologies.

Submission + - "Keep Android Open" Project Demands Software Freedom for Users (keepandroidopen.org)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: You, the consumer, purchased your Android device believing in Google’s promise that it was an open computing platform and that you could run whatever software you choose on it. Instead, as of September 2026, they will be non-consensually pushing an update to your operating system that irrevocably blocks this right and leaves you at the mercy of their judgement over what software you are permitted to trust.

You, the creator, can no longer develop an app and share it directly with your friends, family, and community without first seeking Google’s approval. The promise of Android — and a marketing advantage it has used to distinguish itself against the iPhone — has always been that it is “open”. But Google clearly feels that they have enough of a lock on the Android ecosystem, along with sufficient regulatory capture, that they can now jettison this principle with prejudice and impunity.

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."

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"Though a program be but three lines long, someday it will have to be maintained." -- The Tao of Programming

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