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Submission + - Is it a 4th Amendment violation when Dropbox shares your data with governments?

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Is it a Fourth Amendment violation when Dropbox shared information about a user's child porn with a quasi-governmental entity? This breezy Seventh Circuit opinion entrenches a circuit split by holding that the fine print in all the online terms of service you never read means you've consented to gov't searches of your electronic files. Some folks (and not just your humble summarist) are skeptical.

Decided May 5.

Submission + - The Long Goodbye to the Most Successful Rocket of All Time (pjmedia.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Elon Musk's SpaceX began making moves on the ground that could eventually lead to the retirement of the company's venerable Falcon 9 reusable launch vehicle, which changed the world. Pause before we even get started to ponder that roughly 145 launches this year could mark the beginning of a long goodbye.

As of this month, Falcon 9 has flown 624 orbital missions with about 621 full mission successes since 2015, for an industry-leading success rate and a launch cadence that entire nation-states can only dream of matching. And SpaceX did it while providing massively reduced costs to its customers — that includes you, American taxpayer — and pioneering operational reusability at scale.

Nevertheless, for the first time, Falcon 9 will fly fewer missions this year than the previous year, as the company retools its Cape Canaveral launch facilities for the massive Starship. “With 39A becoming a primarily Falcon Heavy and Starship pad, we don’t actually need two operational droneships on the East Coast to maintain our Falcon manifest,” SpaceX vice president of launch recently posted. And SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said earlier this year, "This year we’ll still launch a lot, but not as much... And then we’ll tail off our launches as Starship is coming online."

Getting Starship's cost-to-orbit down to where Musk wants it means flying in volume. Once Starship is in full production, every Falcon 9 launch takes away from that volume. It might seem absurd that a rocket capable of carrying five or six times more cargo to orbit could eventually cost one-third the price (or someday even less) to launch, but that's the goal. The sooner SpaceX transitions to Starship at scale, the sooner it reaches those economics.

And if there's not enough commercial demand to fill a particular Starship flight? SpaceX already does ride-sharing, and could fill the excess cargo capacity with Starlink or xAI satellites.

Submission + - AAA Finds EV Range Drops 39% in Cold Weather and Costs Jump (autoblog.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: AAA study finds EVs lose 39 percent range and 35.6 percent efficiency at 20F.

Winter EV operating costs rise by up to $76.93 per 1,000 miles using public charging.

35 percent of buyers now favor hybrids, which perform better than EVs in cold weather.

Submission + - J&J vaccine not safe and effective

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: J&J Lead Regulatory Scientist Joshua Rys Admits: “None of That Stuff [J&J Vaccines] Was Safe and Effective”

In never before seen footage, James O’Keefe confronts Joshua Rys, Johnson & Johnson’s lead regulatory scientist, after he was caught on hidden camera admitting damning truths about the company’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Rys told our undercover journalist: “Do you have any idea the lack of research that was done on those products [J&J Vaccines]?” and “None of that stuff [J&J Vaccines] was safe and effective”

He added that people “wanted it,” so “we gave it to them,” and that lawsuits were coming to those people [Johnson & Johnson] eventually.

Submission + - Danger of AI isn't destruction but seduction. Fiduciary duty may be the solution (wsj.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok are all seductive to a degree. They’re unfailingly friendly and encouraging, and are designed to promote engagement by making users feel heard and understood.

Numerous companies already produce AI “girlfriends” and “boyfriends” that feature highly realistic video avatars and that interact romantically and even sexually. (The dangers of this are illustrated in a famous bit from “Futurama” called “Don’t date robots.”) There’s already a “MyBoyfriendIsAI” subreddit, where lucky women show off photos of their AI-based engagement and wedding rings they bought themselves.

My concern is that the platforms’ owners will use them to manipulate their users in self-interested ways, encouraging purchases, investments and other behaviors for their own purposes, or inflict political spin even as users think they’re having authentic interaction with programs that, at bottom, are no more “real” than Tim the Pencil.

There have been some suggestions for regulation already, but here’s mine: AI personalities and their owners should be subjected to fiduciary duty when they interact with users.

Fiduciary duty is a legal concept applying to an actor who is in a relationship of trust with another and whose position involves superior knowledge or skill. Classic examples include lawyers acting for clients, administrators of a legal trust acting for beneficiaries, executors for heirs, corporate directors for shareholders, and members of a partnership for one another.

A fiduciary relationship creates a duty to act in the beneficiary’s interest, to act in good faith, and to use reasonable skill and diligence. It includes—important in this context—a duty of confidentiality, with all information relating to the relationship kept confidential and private.

AIs that purport to form a human relationship should be held under a fiduciary duty, with the companies behind them liable for heavy damages if it’s violated. Then we wouldn’t need government regulation as such because plaintiffs’ lawyers will vigorously patrol the boundaries of good conduct.

Submission + - GTFO ICE Members' Data Exposed for all to see (substack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Miles Taylor: "Anonymous," former DHS Chief of Staff, Google security executive launched a website called GTFO ICE that collects your full name, email, phone number, and zip code to join an anti-ICE "rapid response network." And publishes the user information via a public API.

17,662 people have signed up.

The sign-up data is exposed on a public REST API. No true authentication. No rate limiting. Full records: names, emails, phone numbers, zip codes, timestamps.

The man who ran the third-largest federal department (250,000 employees, $60 billion budget) who oversaw election security architecture and led counterterrorism operations, then served as Google's Head of National Security Policy... ...can't secure a sign-up form. But he does milk hundreds of thousands of NGO dollars on these credentials. While freeloading off his fame as the person who wrote the infamous NYT article "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration."

Submission + - Spirit Airlines is reportedly set to cease operations at 3am on Saturday (dailymail.com) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes:

Spirit Airlines is reportedly set to cease operations at 3am on Saturday after a bailout from President Trump has failed to materialize.

The airline, which began air operations in 1990, had been hoping for a $500 million lifeline from the federal government, but the deal has not been finalized in time due to financial complications, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Sources told the outlet that the budget airline has failed to get sufficient support from bondholders and the government to secure the funding before running out of cash.

The collapse of the airline could leave passengers stranded across the nation, and places over 14,000 jobs at risk.

Passenger Taylor Gonzalez, 27, told the Detroit Free Press that she fears being stranded in Los Angeles with her three-year-old son on Friday night, saying she 'didn't know about this until just now.'

Despite the reported end of its operations, Spirit's website is still allowing customers to book flights before the 3am deadline.

The carrier previously filed for bankruptcy twice between November 2024 and August 2025, and it currently remains under Chapter 11 protection.

Spirit attempted a merger with JetBlue two years ago. It was scuttled by the Biden admin.

Submission + - The Mandalorian and Grogu Tracking for Lowest Star Wars Box Office Opening Ever (geeksandgamers.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The Mandalorian and Grogu box office projections are continuing to trend in the wrong direction, with new estimates suggesting the film could deliver the lowest opening weekend in the history of the Star Wars franchise.

According to the latest tracking data, the film is currently eyeing an $80 million-plus four-day Memorial Day debut. While that might sound respectable on paper, it would fall well below previous Star Wars theatrical releases—and even trail 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, which opened to $103 million over the same holiday frame.

Solo holds the distinction of being the first Star Wars movie to actually lose money at the box office (but seemingly not the last).

For Star Wars, a franchise that once dominated the global box office, that’s a stunning shift.

Submission + - Convicted former Harvard scientist rebuilds brain computer lab in China (investing.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Charles Lieber, once the world’s top-ranked chemist and chair of Harvard’s chemistry department, has resurfaced as the founding director of i-BRAIN in Shenzhen. Just three years after his U.S. federal conviction for lying about ties to the Thousand Talents Program, Lieber is overseeing a state-funded institute bankrolled by a government that has declared brain-computer interfaces a "national priority."

The resource gap between his new lab and Harvard is staggering:

Unlimited Primate Access: Lieber now has access to 2,000 primate cages at the Brain Science Infrastructure Shenzhen—a resource far beyond what was available at Harvard, which closed its primate center in 2015.

Cutting-Edge Hardware: His lab recently installed a $2 million deep ultraviolet lithography system from ASML to print the microscopic circuits essential for neural implants.

Billion-Dollar Backing: i-BRAIN is part of a "manicured" science hub where parent institutions operate with five-year budgets totaling roughly $2 billion.

Charles Lieber, 67, is among the world’s leading researchers in brain-computer interfaces. The technology has shown promise in treating conditions such as ALS and restoring movement in paralyzed patients. But it also has potential military applications: Scientists at China’s People’s Liberation Army have investigated brain interfaces as a way to engineer super soldiers by boosting mental agility and situational awareness, according to the U.S. Defense Department.

Lieber was found guilty by a jury and convicted in December 2021 of making false statements to federal investigators about his ties to a Chinese state program to recruit overseas talent, and tax offenses related to payments he received from a Chinese university. He served two days in prison and six months under house arrest, and was fined $50,000 and ordered to pay $33,600 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. During the case, his defense said he was suffering from an incurable lymphoma, which was in remission, and he was fighting for his life.

Submission + - Elon Musk gets apology from California regulators as a SpaceX lawsuit is settled (apnews.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: California regulators apologized to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk this week as they settled a lawsuit that claimed a state agency showed political bias against the rocket company and its chief executive.

As part of the settlement, the California Coastal Commission acknowledged its members made “improper” statements about Musk’s political beliefs at a 2024 hearing on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch program.

“The commission agrees that it may not consider irrelevant factors in performing its function and specifically agrees that it will not take into account the perceived political beliefs, political speech or labor practices of SpaceX or its officers in considering any regulatory action concerning SpaceX,” the commission said in federal court documents filed Tuesday.

SpaceX had sued the commission over its opposition to expanding the launch schedule for Falcon 9 rockets from the Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Southern California coast near Santa Barbara.

The company’s lawsuit accused the coastal commission of engaging in political discrimination by refusing to sign off on a U.S. Air Force proposal to boost the number of launches at the busy base owned by the federal government.

Comment Communists demand Communism (Score 0) 82

So yeah your AI can outperform a doctor that gets 5 minutes with the patient before having to move on to the next one in order to keep their private equity Masters satisfied.

So, suppose, we stick it to the "private equity Masters", compel them to double the number of doctors — forget for a second, who is going to pay for them — and afford them a whopping 10 minutes with the patient.

ChatGPT will still beat humans... And it will be getting better with every month, whereas the humans will not...

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