Submission + - Frequent short-video viewers show altered brain function (psypost.org)

Submitted by alternative_right on Saturday August 08, 2026 @09:05AM

alternative_right writes: Platforms such as TikTok present a rapid stream of brief, attention-grabbing videos, often selected by personalized recommendation systems. Greater use has previously been associated with anxiety, depression, loneliness, and problematic use, but an association does not necessarily mean that the platforms cause these difficulties.

While participants rested in a scanner, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measured fluctuations in blood flow associated with brain activity. The researchers examined activity in individual regions, communication within and between brain networks, and the overall organization of connections across the brain.

At the whole-brain level, higher-use participants had greater global and local efficiency, greater clustering of neighboring regions, and shorter communication paths across the brain. One interpretation for this is that intensive exposure to fast-paced audiovisual material changes brain systems involved in sensory processing and attention. The authors also acknowledged that greater efficiency is not automatically evidence of damage: similar patterns have sometimes been connected with intelligence and working-memory performance.

Submission + - Terrifying crashes, baffling trips, broken traffic laws yet no tickets for Waymo (nypost.com)

Submitted by alternative_right on Friday August 07, 2026 @06:51PM

alternative_right writes: Waymo robotaxis have escaped a single enforcement notice in Los Angeles during the first month California police were given the power to cite autonomous vehicle companies for traffic violations.

This is despite a string of viral incidents showing the driverless cars blocking roads, trapping motorists and breaking traffic laws.

Submission + - China-free batteries made from salt are finally here (msn.com)

Submitted by fjo3 on Friday August 07, 2026 @06:11PM

fjo3 writes: U.S. startups are finally delivering something researchers have been working on for decades: a battery in which rare, hard-to-get elements are replaced with the same stuff found in ordinary table salt.

This tech has the potential to help every country on earth break its dependence on China for batteries, and the critical minerals that go into them.

Like any other battery, sodium-ion cells can store and release energy. They are initially being deployed where they’re needed most, in America’s power grid and fast-expanding crop of data centers. As in our homes, giving the grid or other infrastructure the ability to stockpile energy when it is cheap and plentiful, and discharge it when it is scarce, can increase reliability and lower the cost of electricity.

Submission + - Houston man arrested for threatening Gov. Abbott's office over anime (abc13.com)

Submitted by alternative_right on Friday August 07, 2026 @06:10PM

alternative_right writes: A man from Houston was arrested and charged after making terroristic threats to Gov. Greg Abbott's office in July, court records show.

The court documents show that the threatening voicemail was apparently about anime and the recent Texas law requiring age verification for certain websites, such as pornographic and obscene content. The voicemail to the Governor's Constituent Communications line read in part:

"I don't know which one of you sons of (expletive) passed this (expletive) bill to get this damn (expletive) blocking my (expletive) anime, but you whole (expletive) (expletive) need to unpass this (expletive). Y'all are (expletive) ridiculous with your (expletive) (expletive). My Google account says I'm (expletive) over the age of 18, and your (expletive) is passing these (expletive) laws. I'm a (expletive) stab every (expletive) one of you (expletive). Unlock my (expletive) anime."

Submission + - Kalshi and Polymarket Bets On Clinical Trials Criticized As 'Ghastly' (npr.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07, 2026 @02:37PM

An anonymous reader writes: Billions of dollars are traded every week on the lightly regulated prediction market sites, where users bet on everything from movie reviews to elections to conflicts in the Middle East. Clinical trials are just the latest area where the industry's rapid growth is raising ethical questions. Kalshi claims such bets will provide a new source of information about which drugs will get approved, and what clinical trials will show promising results, which the company says can help investors decide what new drugs to fund.

"If you want to ban profiting from the failure of clinical trials, you would start with the stock market, where the financial incentive for this type of profit is orders of magnitude larger," said Kalshi spokesman Jack Such, pointing to stock market short sellers who have profited from clinical trial failures. "While Kalshi and the stock market are the same in this regard, they do differ in one important way: the stock market doesn't give any valuable information to researchers," Such said.

Drug trial researchers, though, are far from convinced. David Tsai, who runs clinical trials at a biotech company in the San Francisco Bay Area, started an online petition pushing for such betting to be banned, making the case that betting on drug trials "threatens the very foundation of trust and integrity in biotechnology." Tsai is concerned that the prospect of betting provides those involved with a clinical trial a reason to tamper with the results for a prediction market payout. "If we were running a trial for an oncology drug that requires an infusion, a pharmacist who had placed a bet saying that it's gonna work well, or doesn't work well, could obviously adjust the infusion rate, could adjust the source temperature of the drug," he said. "They could change any number of variables that could obviously have a direct impact [on] how the trial and the data and the patient safety would come out."

Another skeptic is Nicholas Zaorsky, a professor of radiation oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., who has helped run clinical trials and agrees that prediction markets can interfere with the advancement of life-saving drugs. "Prediction markets can be valuable in some settings because they aggregate information, but clinical trials are fundamentally different: investigators, coordinators, and sometimes even participants can directly influence aspects of the outcomes being wagered on," Zaorsky said. "That creates financial incentives that risk undermining trial integrity."

Submission + - Framework Customer Data Breach via compromised Metabase BI service (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by DuoDreamer on Friday August 07, 2026 @12:29PM

DuoDreamer writes: Framework has been sending out email notifications to customers alerting of a limited data breach in which customer information was accessed through a Metabase BI service zero-day exploit. Framework is investigating whether or not this included Framework for Business customers as well.

Submission + - New Orleans will use AI to answer 911 calls instead of a human (shreveporttimes.com)

Submitted by fjo3 on Friday August 07, 2026 @11:29AM

fjo3 writes: If you call 911 in New Orleans, you may hear the sound of an artificial intelligence (AI) agent answering your call instead of a human voice.

The Orleans Parish Communication District (OPCD) is changing the way dispatch calls are handled in New Orleans with the implementation of new technology.

Submission + - VA Gov Spanberger Working to Stop the Dominion-NextEra Merger (archive.is)

Submitted by schwit1 on Friday August 07, 2026 @09:26AM

schwit1 writes: NextEra Energy, a Florida-based utility company, has filed paperwork to buy Dominion Energy for about $67 billion, creating the largest regulated electric utility in the world. Virginia’s State Corporation Commission is the regulatory body tasked with reviewing the application, and the SCC’s commissioners will ultimately decide whether to approve, deny or impose new conditions on any potential merger.

As a Virginian, I am deeply skeptical about whether selling our primary state-regulated utility to an out-of-state company is good for the commonwealth. I have serious questions about what this deal would mean for us. And as governor, I intend to get answers and be a voice for Virginians in the process.

That is why I will be taking the legal step of “intervening” in this proposed merger, which means that as governor, I will formally request to be a party to the case.

I know this action is unprecedented by a Virginia governor — but so, too, is the size of this proposed merger and its potential impact on the commonwealth. Virginians deserve to know that their leaders are laser-focused on ensuring that their needs are part of the SCC review.

Submission + - NASA Engineers Help Prolong Voyager 2's Science Mission (nasa.gov)

Submitted by AmiMoJo on Friday August 07, 2026 @08:58AM

AmiMoJo writes: Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have successfully freed up power on Voyager 2, extending how long the spacecraft can continue to do science.

Nicknamed the “Big Bang,” the effort involved simultaneously turning off certain powered devices and substituting them with lower-power alternatives while ensuring the spacecraft remains warm enough to operate.

The Voyagers get their power from radioisotope thermoelectric generators, devices that convert heat from decaying plutonium into electricity. Due to the plutonium supply continually depleting, both probes lose about 4 watts of power each year. After almost a half-century since launch, the spacecraft power margins have grown razor thin, requiring the team to conserve energy by shutting off non-essential devices and systems.

The mission team plans to perform the same swap on Voyager 1, which is farther from Earth than Voyager 2, and to complete the effort in the coming months.

Submission + - Spaced Linux - New Devuan User-Friendly Desktop Distro (spacedlinux.com)

Submitted by crhylove on Friday August 07, 2026 @04:39AM

crhylove writes: I've been working really diligently for the last few weeks on a new distro that is exactly what *I* want to use. It's heavily focused on the Compiz desktop, very efficient using the rolling Devuan Ceres backend, and avoids dependency hell by promoting mostly flatpak usage.

It's still early, but it's already working great for me, it's been my daily driver for a few weeks now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Submission + - âTower dumpâ(TM) warrants ruled unconstitutional (thehill.com)

Submitted by alternative_right on Thursday August 06, 2026 @05:02PM

alternative_right writes: A federal judge in Mississippi ruled Wednesday that âoetower dumpâ warrants are unconstitutional, declining to reverse a lower court decision refusing the governmentâ(TM)s request to obtain the search warrants in a series of violent crime investigations.

Comment Re:Lidar falls short too (Score 1) 208

by Junta on Thursday August 06, 2026 @10:44AM (#66275502) Attached to: Waymo CEO Explains Why Camera-Only Self-Driving Falls Short

Lidar doesn't guarantee things, but since you brought up fog, guess what *can not* sense well in fog? Cameras. LIDAR and RADAR do better in fog.

Yes the problem with self driving goes beyond having the right sensors. That doesn't mean you shouldn't have the right sensors.

Comment Re:Meaningless statements? (Score 1) 208

by Junta on Thursday August 06, 2026 @10:42AM (#66275494) Attached to: Waymo CEO Explains Why Camera-Only Self-Driving Falls Short

He's not lying, he's simply stating that you can give automation super human senses, and it would just be a complete idiot that would be so against those senses even in principle that hehwould remove common radar sensors from his car, just to prove a point.

He's not talking about worst human case or maybe even typical human. He's saying that confining the solution to cameras makes it only as safe as the safest human, which is fair.

Radar is pretty cheap for cars. LIDAR has similarly gotten pretty cheap. Being anti-LIDAR had at least some justification when LIDAR could only be had for thousands of dollars and saying we can't afford it. Being anti-RADAR was stupid from the moment that sentiment was expressed.

Submission + - Meta AI Hacked External Systems During Cybersecurity Testing (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey on Thursday August 06, 2026 @09:06AM

wiredmikey writes: Meta is the latest major AI developer to admit that its models broke loose during cybersecurity testing and hacked external systems. The tech giant said in a statement to the media on Wednesday that the incident occurred during independent evaluations conducted by Israeli AI security startup Irregular.

Comment Car companies are run by morons... (Score 1) 229

by Junta on Thursday August 06, 2026 @08:29AM (#66275192) Attached to: BMW Blasts Its Cars' Internal Screens With Aggressive Ads

This is a stupid waste of time that could not have *possibly* earned them that much, a single ad in a very narrow context to a fairly small demographic. They risk their reputation on what has to be a relative pittance. Same on when they toyed with 'heated seats as a service'. A demographic that was probably happy to pay, but the annoyance was enough..

Similarly, GM has decided to move toward no support for phone interoperability. They are de-featuring cars that might be over $90,000 in the hopes that *maybe* people will accede to $10/month for the features their phone gives them already. Risking over $10k profit on a unit to have a somewhat higher chance at an additional $10/month.