178482794
submission
fjo3 writes:
A team of researchers in California drew notoriety last year with an aborted experiment on a retired aircraft carrier that sought to test a machine for creating clouds.
But behind the scenes, they were planning a much larger and potentially riskier study of salt water-spraying equipment that could eventually be used to dim the sun’s rays — a multimillion-dollar project aimed at producing clouds over a stretch of ocean larger than Puerto Rico.
178476588
submission
fjo3 writes:
Roughly 850,000 years ago, someone looked at a toddler and saw dinner. That’s the conclusion researchers have drawn after analyzing a child’s neck bone found in the Gran Dolina cave system in northern Spain. The bone, belonging to a 2- to 5-year-old Homo antecessor, shows precise cut marks—signs of decapitation and defleshing. In other words, this poor kid got butchered and eaten.
178387412
submission
fjo3 writes:
Newly uncovered metadata reveals that nearly three minutes of footage were cut from what the US Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation described as “full raw” surveillance video from the only functioning camera near Jeffrey Epstein’s prison cell the night before he was found dead. The video was released last week as part of the Trump administration’s commitment to fully investigate Epstein’s 2019 death but instead has raised new questions about how the footage was edited and assembled.
178166456
submission
fjo3 writes:
Increasingly aggressive immigration raids carried out by masked federal agents, sometimes using unmarked vehicles, are creating problems for local law enforcement agencies.
Police have little or no insight into where the federal enforcement actions are taking place but often have to deal with the aftermath, including protests and questions from residents about what exactly happened. In some cases, local cops have been mistaken for federal agents, eroding years of work to have immigrant communities trust the police.
177992111
submission
fjo3 writes:
Doucet developed a kind of thermochromic pigment containing the crystals and started experimenting with a tin of ordinary housepaint and different additives. The result was a substance that could change color by absorbing ultra-violet light (which produces heat) above a certain temperature.
177729091
submission
fjo3 writes:
For Tim Cook, the hits keep coming.
On Friday, President Trump targeted Apple AAPL -3.02%decrease; red down pointing triangle with new demands that the company make iPhones in the U.S., threatening 25% tariffs if the company doesn’t comply. “Rise and shine Tim Cook,” Trump whisperer Laura Loomer posted on X, reminding the Apple CEO he is at the center of the president’s trade bull’s-eye.
That is just one of the threats Cook has confronted in what has appeared to be a no good, very bad year for Apple. Aside from Trump, Cook is facing off against two U.S. judges, European and worldwide regulators, state and federal lawmakers, and even a creator of the iPhone, to say nothing of the cast of rivals outrunning Apple in artificial intelligence.
Each is a threat to Apple’s hefty profit margins, long the company’s trademark and the reason investors drove its valuation above $3 trillion before any other company. Shareholders are still Cook’s most important constituency. The stock’s 25% fall from its peak shows their concern about whether he—or anyone—can navigate the choppy 2025 waters.
177707189
submission
fjo3 writes:
Many researchers steeped in these issues, including myself, expect that the most likely result of building a superhumanly smart AI, under anything remotely like the current circumstances, is that literally everyone on Earth will die. Not as in “maybe possibly some remote chance,” but as in “that is the obvious thing that would happen.”
177648731
submission
fjo3 writes:
In President Dwight D. Eisenhower's famous 1961 speech about the dangers of the military-industrial complex, he also cautioned Americans about the growing power of a "scientific, technological elite."
"The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by federal employment project allocations and the power of money is ever present," warned Eisenhower.
The federal government had become a major financier of scientific research after World War II, and Eisenhower was worried that the spirit of open inquiry and progress would be corrupted by the priorities of the federal bureaucracy.
And he was right.
177542981
submission
fjo3 writes:
For the first time, doctors have treated a baby born with a rare, life-threatening genetic disorder with a gene-editing therapy scientists tailored to specifically repair his unique mutation.
The baby received three infusions containing billions of microscopic gene-editors that homed in on a mutation in his liver and appear to have corrected his defect. Doctors need to follow the boy longer to determine how well the treatment is working. But so far the bespoke therapy appears to have at least partially reversed his condition, reducing his risk of suffering brain damage and possibly even death.
177144929
submission
fjo3 writes:
Slate Auto, a firm backed in part by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is unveiling a low-cost electric truck that can also change into an SUV.
Its starting price point: $20,000 after federal EV incentives.
"A radically simple electric pickup truck that can change into whatever you need it to be — even an SUV," the Slate Auto website says. "Made in the USA at a price that’s actually affordable (no really, for real)."
The two-door version can be changed into a 5-seat SUV. The baseline truck is small: About two-thirds the size of a Chevy Silverado EV and about seven-eights the size of a Ford Maverick. It has a payload capacity of 1,400 pounds compared the Maverick's 1500 pounds.
At less than 15 feet long, Slate says its more akin to a 1985 Toyota pickup.
177001479
submission
fjo3 writes:
The nationwide study of 2,000 Americans revealed striking differences in how various demographics handle the dreaded low-battery situation. While the average person starts fretting at 38%, a more laid-back third of Americans (34%) stay calm until their battery dips below 20%. Even more surprising, about one in eight people (13%) remain unfazed until their phone battery plummets below 10%—truly living on the edge of digital connectivity.
On the flip side, a quarter of Americans (24%) begin worrying before their phone even drops to half power. For these individuals, seeing that battery icon tick below 50% is enough to trigger an active search for the nearest outlet.
176948605
submission
fjo3 writes:
Fingerprint analysis has been a dependable tool in crime-solving for more than a century. Investigators lean on fingerprint evidence to identify suspects or connect them to specific crime scenes, believing that every print offers a distinctive code.
Yet, a team of researchers has found that prints from different fingers of the same person can sometimes appear more alike.
This insight came from an artificial intelligence model that revealed surprising connections between prints.
176545067
submission
fjo3 writes:
Utah is gearing up to make history as the first state to ban fluoride in public water systems if Gov. Spencer Cox signs a bill to prohibit the addition of the tooth decay-fighting mineral.
If signed into law, HB0081 would prevent any individual or political subdivision from adding fluoride "to water in or intended for public water systems."
175797569
submission
fjo3 writes:
Axiom Space, a US business aiming to build its own station, has raised more than $500m (£400m). Vast, a space business backed by crypto billionaire Jed McCaleb, is plotting two stations before the end of the decade. Gravitics, meanwhile, has raised tens of millions of dollars for its modular space “real estate”. Nasa itself, along with other space agencies, is planning a further station, Lunar Gateway, which will orbit the Moon.
Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin has also announced plans to build a space station by 2027, called Orbital Reef, which it has described as an orbital “mixed-use business park”.
175742949
submission
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.