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Comment Re:Just build more roads (Score 1) 198

The Cypress Street Viaduct (the major double-decker that collapsed in the Loma Prieta quake) was built in 1957 by US contractors. Embarcadero was similarly built by US contractors in the 1960s. Russians had nothing to do with it. The only thing Russian about any of it is Embarcadero running near Russian Hill, which was named for a Russian cemetery near its peak.

Submission + - Copy Fail exploit lets 732 bytes hijack Linux systems and quietly grab root (nerds.xyz)

BrianFagioli writes: A newly disclosed Linux kernel vulnerability called Copy Fail (CVE-2026-31431) allows an unprivileged user to gain root access using a tiny 732-byte script, and it works with unsettling consistency across major distributions. Unlike older exploits that relied on race conditions or fragile timing, this one is a straight-line logic flaw in the kernelâ(TM)s crypto subsystem. It abuses AF_ALG sockets and splice to overwrite a few bytes in the page cache of a target file, such as /usr/bin/su. Because the kernel executes from the page cache, not directly from disk, the attacker can inject code into a setuid binary in memory and immediately escalate privileges.

What makes this especially concerning is how quiet it is. The file on disk remains unchanged, so standard integrity checks see nothing wrong, while the in-memory version has already been tampered with. The same primitive can also cross container boundaries since the page cache is shared, raising the stakes for multi-tenant environments and Kubernetes nodes. The underlying issue traces back to an in-place optimization added years ago, now being rolled back as part of the fix. Until patched kernels are widely deployed, this is one of those bugs that feels less like a theoretical risk and more like a practical, reliable path to full system compromise.

Submission + - Longevity Escape Velocity Achieved Within Three Years (popularmechanics.com)

frdmfghtr writes: Popular Mechanics has a story about the rate at which lifespans are being extended by medical technology will surpass actual aging.

From the article:
"There's a controversial idea floating around the futurist community of "longevity escape velocity." It sounds super sci-fi, but it's basi-
cally the idea that as our life extension technology gets better, our life expectancy could increase by more than we age over a set period of time. For example, as medical innovations continue to move forward, we would still age a year over the span of a year. But our life expectancy would go up by, say, a year and two months, meaning we would functionally get two months of life back."

Comment What's the problem? (Score 1) 79

With all of GitHub's great new AI features, it writes all your code for you! It doesn't matter whether the site is up at any given moment; just download your newly completed app at some point then the site is online. You're free to kick back, relax and scroll your social feeds because you don't actually have to do anything anymore. This is truly a golden era!

Submission + - US government ramps up mass surveillance (theconversation.com) 2

sinij writes:

People have little choice when buying devices, using apps or opening accounts but to agree to lengthy terms that include consent for companies to collect and sell their personal data. This “consent” allows their data to end up in the largely unregulated commercial data market. The government claims it can lawfully purchase this data from data brokers. But in buying your data in bulk on the commercial market, the government is circumventing the Constitution, Supreme Court decisions and federal laws designed to protect your privacy from unwarranted government overreach.

Still nothing to hide?

Submission + - Tesla Admits Pre-2023 Hardware Will Never Achieve Full Autonomy 2

DeanonymizedCoward writes: According to Gizmodo, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has admitted on an earnings call that Tesla's "Hardware 3," used in most pre-2023 models, does not have the capability to support fully autonomous driving. “Unfortunately, Hardware 3, I wish it were otherwise, but Hardware 3 simply does not have the capability to achieve unsupervised FSD,” Musk said during the call. “We did think at one point it would, but relative to Hardware 4 it has only 1/8 the memory bandwidth of Hardware 4.”

All hope is not (yet) lost for owners of older Tesla vehicles, though: Musk proposes a "discounted trade-in" program, as well as the deployment of "mini-factories" to streamline the installation of new computers and cameras into older vehicles. It remains to be seen whether this will materialize.

Submission + - Little Caesars drone delivery proves even terrible pizza can fly (nerds.xyz)

BrianFagioli writes: Flytrex is expanding its drone delivery ambitions with a new partnership with Little Caesars, and the hook here is scale. The companyâ(TM)s new Sky2 drone can carry up to 8.8 pounds, which is enough for two large pizzas, sides, and drinks in a single flight. That may not sound like a big leap, but most drone delivery efforts so far have been limited to small, lightweight orders. This setup stretches to about four miles and Flytrex claims roughly 4.5 minutes from takeoff to drop-off, with direct integration into restaurant ordering systems to cut down on delays. The drone itself uses an eight-motor design for redundancy, dual batteries, and high-precision navigation, plus onboard AI managing flight operations.

If you care about the tech, this is one of the more practical implementations weâ(TM)ve seen, especially with recent FAA approvals for beyond visual line of sight flights and partnerships forming across the delivery ecosystem. If you care about the food, well, thatâ(TM)s a different conversation. As someone from Long Island, Iâ(TM)m not convinced that shaving minutes off delivery time suddenly makes chain pizza desirable, even if it arrives via autonomous octocopter. Still, convenience tends to win, and if suburban customers can get dinner dropped in their yard without dealing with traffic or drivers, this kind of system might actually stick.

Submission + - Your phone's next speed boost may come from magnetic chips (phys.org)

alternative_right writes: A new technology has been proposed that could fundamentally solve the issue of smartphones overheating during high-spec gaming or extended video streaming. Researchers at KAIST have discovered the principle of processing signals using the minute vibrations of magnets (spin waves) instead of electrons. This method significantly reduces heat generation and power consumption while enabling instantaneous frequency switching within the several GHz range. This breakthrough is expected to pave the way for smart devices with less heat and longer battery life, as well as ultra-low-power, high-speed computing.

Comment Re:Ah, right back at yah (Score 1) 91

Most of the deaths are explainable.

  • Amy Catherine Eskridge died by suicide in 2022. The cause of death was a single gunshot to the head. Her activities leading up to her death are suggestive of mental health struggles, though they're used by some people as evidence of a conspiracy leading to her death.
  • Michael David Hicks died in June 2023, age 59. He worked at JPL on comet and asteroid missions. No cause of death was released.
  • Frank Maiwald died in July 2024, age 61. He worked at JPL on planetary missions. No cause of death was released.
  • Anthony Chavez has been missing since May 2025. He was 78 when he disappeared. He left his wallet, keys, and cigarettes on a table at home, a common action right before a suicide.
  • Melissa Casias has been missing since June 2025. She was an administrative worker at Los Alamos and held no security clearance. She was last seen walking down a street. She had left her keys, wallet, purse, and both work and personal phones at home after telling colleagues that she was going to work from home. Shoes similar to those she was wearing were recently found in a nearby forest. This also lines up with a possible suicide.
  • Monica Reza has been missing since June 2025. She worked at JPL in California, and went missing during a hiking trip. Her hiking companion said she was there one minute and gone the next. A fall is a much more likely event than an abduction.
  • Steven Garcia has been missing since August 2025. He worked at the Kansas City National Security Campus in Albuquerque. He was last seen walking away from his phone carrying a gun and had left behind his wallet, phone, and keys. As with others above, this is a common behavior of suicidal people.
  • Nuno Lureiro was killed on his doorstep by the Brown University shooter in December 2025. Motive hasn't been established, but the shooter left a recording that he had planned both shootings for years.
  • Jason Thomas went missing in December 2025 for three months before his body was found in March 2026. He was last seen walking along railroad tracks, another frequent precursor for suicides. A cause of death doesn't seem to have been released so far, but law enforcement said that they don't suspect foul play.
  • Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Neil McCasland has been missing since February 2026. He was last seen on a neighborhood surveillance camera with hiking boots and a .38 revolver. He had left behind his wallet, phone, and wearable devices. Many suicides start the same way.
  • Carl Johann Grillmair was killed at his home in February 2026. He was a prominent astronomer and astrophysicist. A suspect has been arrested and has been charged in his murder, which may have happened after an argument.

One suicide (Eskridge), one likely suicide (McCasland), four possible suicides (Chavez, Casias, Garcia, and Thomas), two murders (Lureiro and Grillmair), two other deaths (Hicks and Maiwald), and one missing (Reza). Neither of the murders are linked. Reza may have simply fallen while hiking and been severely injured or killed. The two other deaths were both in the age range where sudden deaths start to become unfortunately common.

Submission + - Billionaire backer sues Trump family's crypto firm over alleged extortion (bbc.co.uk)

Alain Williams writes: The Trump family's World Liberty crypto venture is being sued by one of its billionaire backers over allegations of extortion.

Justin Sun has accused World Liberty of an "illegal scheme" to seize his WLFI tokens, a cryptocurrency issued by the company.

Sun alleges the firm, co-founded by US President Donald Trump and his son Eric Trump, has "frozen" all of his tokens and stripped him of his right to vote on governance issues.

Submission + - The Demand Destruction of Oil (theconversation.com)

hwstar writes: For the first time ever, more than 50 nations will gather next week in Colombia to hash out how to wind down and end their dependence on coal, oil and gas. The history-making conference was planned before the Iran war. But this year’s energy crisis has greatly raised the stakes.

Around 80% of the trapped oil was destined for the Asia-Pacific. Faced with dwindling supply, the region’s governments are implementing emergency measures such as sending workers home, banning government travel, rationing fuel and cutting school hours. The problem is especially bad in the Pacific. Many island nations use diesel for power generation. In response, leaders declared a regional emergency.

But this energy crisis is different from half a century ago in that fossil fuel alternatives are ready for prime time. Since the 1970s, the price of solar panels has fallen 99.9%, while the cost of wind has fallen 91% since 1984. Battery prices have fallen 99% since 1991.

This year’s oil shock shows signs of creating an unplanned social tipping point – a threshold for self-propelling change beyond which systems shift from one state to another. Climate scientists warn of climate tipping points which amplify feedback and accelerate warming. But social scientists also point to positive tipping points – collective action that rapidly accelerates climate action.

Comment Re:We need humility, not arrogance (Score 1) 172

Formal verification mathematically proves code implements a specification. It does not catch bugs that are specified.
There are entire classes of bugs (logic bugs) that LLMs can find that formal verification literally doesn't even try to.

So you prompt the LLM to "find all the bugs".

Even if the LLM can find every last bug (which in turn assumes that this type of problem isn't NP-hard or has some issue that Godel would point out), just defining to the LLM exactly what a "bug" is seems to be pretty much the same thing as those formal specifications that you just convincingly dismissed as inadequate.

I don't think that there's anything magical about LLMs that would let them get around fundamental mathematical roadblocks.

Comment Re:Once again, la Presidenta loses (Score 4, Informative) 133

Stage 3 smog alerts were year-round when I was a kid in the 1980s. They were more common in the summer, but they could happen any time the temperatures rose, and they were a fact of life at school in the spring and fall. I spent a lot of recess and PE time indoors for Stage 2 and 3 alerts. This page shows the number of days at different air qualities for Los Angeles going back to 1980. The highest number of good air quality days was 11 in 1983. For all but two of the remaining years, it was in single digits. The combined number of unhealthy, very unhealthy, and dangerous days usually covered a cumulative six months or so out of the year.

You can see the numbers shifting to the left starting in 1989. Both Republicans and Democrats in the state government (which was run by Republicans at the time) had authorized various government agencies to make changes that would affect smog levels. Since 2002, the number of moderate or good air days has covered at least half of the year, a huge reversal from the 1980s. The number of very unhealthy or dangerous air days has been in the single digits every year (bar one) since 2007, even reaching zero in 2010 and 2013 and only one in six of the other years.

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