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Submission + - Neo-Nazi admits to Nashville electricity grid bomb plot (jpost.com)

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: 'A Tennessee neo-Nazi pleaded guilty last Tuesday to a plot to use an explosive kamikaze drone to attack a Nashville electrical substation, the US Justice Department Public Affairs Office announced.

'Columbia resident Skyler Philippi in July 2024 told a “confidential human source” about how attacking interstate electrical substations would “shock the system,” later expanding in an August 2024 manifesto that he sought to attack “high tax cities or industrial areas to make the k**es lose money.”

'FBI Counterterrorism Division Assistant Director Donald Holstead said in a statement that the plan “had the potential to knock out power to thousands of American homes and to critical facilities like hospitals.”

'Just before Philippi sought to implement his plan in November, the sources participated in a Nordic ritual with Philippi, in which they recited a prayer and discussed the Norse god Odin. The neo-Nazi promised that “this is where the New Age begins” and that it was “time to do something big.”'

Fans of Neil Gaiman's 'American Gods' will be less than surprised at the appearance of Odin in this...

Submission + - Gen Z Leads Biggest Drop in FICO Scores Since Financial Crisis (yahoo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Gen Z borrowers took the biggest hit of any age group this year, helping pull overall credit scores lower in the worst year for US consumer credit quality since the global financial crisis roiled the world’s economy. The average FICO score slipped to 715 in April from 717 a year earlier, marking the second consecutive year-over-year drop, according to a report released Tuesday by Fair Isaac Corp. The average score dropped three points to 687 in 2009.

Gen Z borrowers saw the largest drop, not only this year, but of any age group since 2020, with their average score falling three points to 676, the Montana-based creator of the FICO credit score said. FICO scores are a measure of consumer credit risk and are frequently used by US banks to assess whether to provide loans. The scores typically range from 300 to 850. The credit scoring agency attributed the recent overall drop to higher rates of utilization and delinquency, including the resumption of reporting student loan delinquencies — a category that hit a record high of 3.1% of the entire scorable population. [...] While the overall average score dropped, the median FICO score continued to rise to 745 from 744 a year ago, indicating that a large drop in scores at the low end dragged down the average.

Submission + - China Is Sending Its World-Beating Auto Industry Into a Tailspin (reuters.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: On the outskirts of this city of 21 million, a showroom in a shopping mall offers extraordinary deals on new cars. Visitors can choose from some 5,000 vehicles. Locally made Audis are 50% off. A seven-seater SUV from China’s FAW is about $22,300, more than 60% below its sticker price. These deals – offered by a company called Zcar, which says it buys in bulk from automakers and dealerships – are only possible because China has too many cars. Years of subsidies and other government policies have aimed to make China a global automotive power and the world’s electric-vehicle leader. Domestic automakers have achieved those goals and more – and that’s the problem.

China has more domestic brands making more cars than the world’s biggest car market can absorb because the industry is striving to hit production targets influenced by government policy, instead of consumer demand, a Reuters examination has found. That makes turning a profit nearly impossible for almost all automakers here, industry executives say. Chinese electric vehicles start at less than $10,000; in the U.S., automakers offer just a few under $35,000. Most Chinese dealers can’t make money, either, according to an industry survey published last month, because their lots are jammed with excess inventory. Dealers have responded by slashing prices. Some retailers register and insure unsold cars in bulk, a maneuver that allows automakers to record them as sold while helping dealers to qualify for factory rebates and bonuses from manufacturers.

Unwanted vehicles get dumped onto gray-market traders like Zcar. Some surface on TikTok-style social-media sites in fire sales. Others are rebranded as "used" – even though their odometers show no mileage – and shipped overseas. Some wind up abandoned in weedy car graveyards. These unusual practices are symptoms of a vastly oversupplied market – and point to a potential shakeout mirroring turmoil in China’s property market and solar industry, according to many industry figures and analysts. They stem from government policies that prioritize boosting sales and market share – in service of larger goals for employment and economic growth – over profitability and sustainable competition. Local governments offer cheap land and subsidies to automakers in exchange for production and tax-revenue commitments, multiplying overcapacity across the country.

Submission + - Shared genetic mechanisms underpin social life in bees and humans, study suggest (phys.org)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: In social species, there is individual variation in sociability—some individuals are highly social and well-connected within their society, whereas others prefer less social interaction. This variation can be driven by many factors, including mood, social status, previous experience, and genetics. However, the genetic and molecular mechanisms that influence sociability are poorly understood.

Sociability is a complex characteristic, controlled by many genes, but these shared genomic features suggest there are ancient molecular building blocks of social life that have been conserved through millions of years of evolution, even if humans and bees evolved social life independently, the authors say.

The authors add, "It is a central feature of all societies that group members often engage with one another, but vary in their tendency to do so. Combining automated monitoring of social interactions, DNA sequencing, and brain transcriptomics in honey bee colonies, we identified evolutionarily conserved molecular roots of sociability shared across phylogenetically distinct species, including humans."

Submission + - Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro makes food taste sweeter and saltier (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Some people taking Ozempic, Wegovy, or Mounjaro notice that food suddenly tastes sweeter or saltier, and this subtle shift in flavor perception appears tied to reduced appetite and stronger feelings of fullness. In a study of more than 400 patients, roughly one in five experienced heightened taste sensitivity, and many reported being less hungry and more easily satisfied.

Submission + - Color-changing organogel stretches 46 times its size and self-heals (phys.org)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Scientists from Taiwan have developed a new material that can stretch up to 4,600% of its original length before breaking. Even if it does break, gently pressing the pieces together at room temperature allows it to heal, fully restoring its shape and stretchability within 10 minutes.

Submission + - GNOME 49 "Brescia" Desktop Environment Released (9to5linux.com)

Submitted by prisoninmate
prisoninmate writes: From a report by 9to5Linux: "Highlights of GNOME 49 include a new “Do Not Disturb” toggle in Quick Settings, a dedicated Accessibility menu in the login screen, support for handling unknown power profiles in the Quick Settings menu, support for YUV422 and YUV444 (HDR) colour spaces, support for passive screen casts, and support for async keyboard map settings.

GNOME 49 also introduces support for media controls, restart, and shutdown actions on the lock screen, support for dynamic users for greeter sessions in the GNOME Display Manager (GDM), and support for per-monitor brightness sliders in Quick Settings on multi-monitor setups."

Comment Re:So? Christians say all kinds of shit. (Score 1) 143

The latest thinking is that the universe never "began", it has always been in existence. Maybe not in this particular form, but it has always existed.

In other words, there never was a "time" when there was "nothing". The universe, in whatever form(s) it may have taken, has always existed.

And no, pointing to or complaining about the problem of an "infinite regress" won't make any difference.

1) Matter and energy can't be created or destroyed, right? They can only change form, right?

2) If they can't be created....then they must have always existed in some form.

3) Matter and energy make up the observable universe...which means the universe has always existed in some form.

But that's just what I hear the latest thinking is, I don't know for sure.

Comment Re:So? Christians say all kinds of shit. (Score 2) 143

Islam is basically Christianity minus the bat-shit crazy fairy-tales.

Trust me, Islam has more than its share of bat-shit crazy fairy-tales. Almost all religions do.

Islam is still in its blood-thirsty "kill-'em-all" phase, right about where Christianity was 1000 or so years ago (Crusades, anyone?). Give Islam another 200 ~ 300 years and it'll start to become watered down and less frothy, more 'reasonable', etc etc. Still bat-shit crazy, but slightly less violent.

Comment Back to the Stone Age (Score 1) 143

The government (controlled by the Mullahs or whatever) basically want the population living a Stone Age existence compared to the rest of the world. Poor, ignorant, and on the verge of starving will keep the peons in line.

I'm sure they'd also like to tattoo everyone at birth, or at least the women (so they'd know who they 'belonged' to).

I forget who said it, but the truth is that some cultures are better than others.

Submission + - Scientists find that ice generates electricity when bent (phys.org)

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: Phys.org is reporting on a study published in Nature Physics involving ICN2, at the UAB campus, Xi'an Jiaotong University (Xi'an) and Stony Brook University (New York), showing for the first time that ordinary ice is a flexoelectric material — meaning it can generate electricity when subjected to mechanical deformation.

"We discovered that ice generates electric charge in response to mechanical stress at all temperatures. In addition, we identified a thin 'ferroelectric' layer at the surface at temperatures below -113C (160K)," explains Dr. Xin Wen, a member of the ICN2 Oxide Nanophysics Group and one of the study's lead researchers.

"This means that the ice surface can develop a natural electric polarization, which can be reversed when an external electric field is applied—similar to how the poles of a magnet can be flipped. The surface ferroelectricity is a cool discovery in its own right, as it means that ice may have not just one way to generate electricity, but two: ferroelectricity at very low temperatures, and flexoelectricity at higher temperatures all the way to 0 C."

This property places ice on a par with electroceramic materials such as titanium dioxide, which are currently used in advanced technologies like sensors and capacitors.

Submission + - Final Fantasy composer shares concern about 'stagnation' in game music (pcgamer.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: "I won’t go as far as to call it stagnation, but I believe directors and producers hold too much power in their hands even when it comes to the music," said Uematsu, according to Automaton's translation. "Even now, game composers aren’t in a position to speak their opinion freely, and no matter how much musical knowledge or technical skills they possess, they’re still in a position where it’s difficult to speak their mind.

"There are almost no game producers who are well versed in worldwide entertainment and are familiar with a wide variety of musical genres, so anything goes for them as long as you make it sound like a John Williams movie soundtrack."

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