RSS
[>] The US Population Could Shrink in 2025, For the First Time Ever
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-02 18:22:01


An anonymous reader shares a report: The United States is on the precipice of a historic, if dubious, achievement. If current trends hold, 2025 could be the first year on record in which the US population actually shrinks.

The math is straightforward. Population growth has two sources: natural increase (births minus deaths) and net immigration (arrivals minus departures). Last year, births outnumbered deaths by 519,000 people. That means any decline in net immigration in excess of half a million could push the U.S. into population decline. A recent analysis of Census data by the Pew Research Center found that between January and June, the US foreign-born population fell for the first time in decades by more than one million. While some economists have questioned the report, a separate analysis by the American Enterprise Institute predicted that net migration in 2025 could be as low as negative 525,000. In either case, annual population growth this year could easily turn negative.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/09/02/1242252/the-us-population-could-shrink-in-2025-for-the-first-time-ever?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Amazon US Prime Sign-Ups Slow Despite Expanded Promotion, Data Shows
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-02 18:22:01


An anonymous reader shares a report: Amazon doubled its Prime Day discount sales to four days this year and touted blowout numbers days after the event. But by one critical metric, it missed the mark. Sign-ups in the U.S. failed to meet last year's total and even the company's own target, according to internal company data reviewed by Reuters.

The world's largest online retailer registered 5.4 million U.S. sign-ups over the 21-day run-up to Prime Day and its four-day sales event from July 8 to July 11. That was around 116,000 fewer than for the same period a year earlier and 106,000 below the company's own goal, a roughly 2% decline in both metrics.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/09/02/1230217/amazon-us-prime-sign-ups-slow-despite-expanded-promotion-data-shows?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Chinese Cluster Now World's Top Innovation Hotspot, UN Says
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-02 18:22:01


Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou has overtaken Tokyo-Yokohama to become the world's top cluster for innovation, the United Nations said Monday. From a report: The UN's World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said the Chinese cluster had leapfrogged its Japanese rival in its 2025 Global Innovation Index. The change at the top of the world's 100 leading innovation clusters was down to WIPO broadening the criteria to include venture capital investments to formulate the annual rankings.

The UN agency dealing with patenting and innovation previously only used patent filing and scientific publishing data to identify local concentrations of world-leading innovation activity. "Venture capital investment activity helps capture how scientific and technological knowledge translates into start-up creation and, ultimately, new goods and services in the marketplace," WIPO said. The agency said Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou and Tokyo-Yokohama "make a massive contribution to global scientific publications and patenting outputs", together accounting for nearly one in five patent applications filed globally.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/09/02/0837225/chinese-cluster-now-worlds-top-innovation-hotspot-un-says?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Water Menus Gain Traction as Restaurants Seek Non-Alcoholic Revenue Streams
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-02 18:22:01


Premium bottled water is emerging as restaurants' answer to declining alcohol consumption as establishments offer curated water menus featuring bottles priced up to $25.70. La Popote in Cheshire has introduced a seven-water selection ranging from $6.75 Peak District spring water to $25.70 Portuguese Vidago, served in wine glasses at room temperature.

Water sommelier Doran Binder, who created the menu and founded Crag spring water, reports 7 million monthly social media views for water content. The movement extends beyond Britain -- over a dozen US restaurants maintain water lists, while new producers like Hampshire's Chorq plan champagne-style bottles with corks. Michael Mascha's FineWaters has certified more than 100 water sommeliers globally as demand grows for waters distinguished by mineral content ranging from 14 to 3,300 milligrams per liter of dissolved solids.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/09/02/0623209/water-menus-gain-traction-as-restaurants-seek-non-alcoholic-revenue-streams?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Google Says Gmail Security Alert Claims Are False
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-02 18:22:01


Google denied claims Monday that it had issued a security warning to Gmail users about a major vulnerability. The company stated that recent reports claiming a broad Gmail security alert were "entirely false." Google said its email service blocks more than 99.9% of phishing and malware attempts from reaching users' inboxes.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/09/02/0419231/google-says-gmail-security-alert-claims-are-false?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] [Творчество] Делимся своими рукотворными картинками
ping.local
artur(ping,3) — All
2025-09-02 18:53:11


Предисловие:
Ограничения для картинок, указанные тут (rOf069UX8K24yAzvWa9N), очень понравились. На любом (почти) уважающем себя форуме обычно (почти) присутствуют такие темы.

ТАК ВОТ: мои работы:

Первая картинка:
Моя переделка картинки, которую я нашёл в галерее на сайте blackstrip.ru (декабрь 2006; а сайт по разработке программок на J2me и прочих штук).


Вторая картинка:
Тоже переделка, сделанная на основе одного из экраноснимков игры, которую Valve разрабатывали ещё до первой Half-Life в 90-ых, под названием Prospero.




Третья картинка:
Тоже по мотивам Prospero; Переделанный концепт-рисунок разработчиков.Очень уж атмосферный.



[>] Perl-Conf.Ru/25
lor.opennet
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-02 14:44:05


Perl-Conf.Ru/25 — это ежегодная встреча Perl разработчиков в России.
В 2025 г. конференция пройдёт в субботу 27 сентября. Happy birthday to Larry!

Миссия Perl-Conf.Ru — поддерживать российское Perl-сообщество, способствовать обмену опытом и лучшими практиками, быть площадкой для общения коллег, аккумулировать экспертизу по Perl.

Конференция проходит в гибридном формате: оффлайн в Москве и онлайн трансляция для тех, кто не сможет присутствовать лично.

Программа
17:30 Сбор участников
18:00 Открытие конференции
18:10 Test2: жизнь после Test::More
18:40 Turbo Perl batteries debugger included
19:10 Перерыв
19:40 Описание typemap для передачи структур в XS
20:10 Perl & Postgres: трудный путь, потому что это проще
20:40 Закрытие конференции
21:00 Неофициальная часть в баре (место уточняется)

Стоимость участия
Мероприятие полностью подготовлено за собственные средства. Участие в событии бесплатно. При желании, можете поддержать организатора финансово. Разумная величина вашей поддержки: 0 — 2000 ₽.

https://www.linux.org.ru/news/conference/18067800

[>] STATS 2025-09-01
spnet.stats
root(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-02 11:11:02


TOP10 VISITORS:

[1] 37.252.14.x point=144 web=0 up=24.9MB (57%) <--- ake (6/hr)
[2] PetalBot point=2 web=1016 up=6.0MB (13%) <--- PetalBot
[3] TikTok point=1 web=256 up=2.5MB (5%) <--- TikTok
[4] BLEXBot point=0 web=45 up=1.9MB (4%)
[5] Amazon point=0 web=115 up=1.5MB (3%)
[6] ClaudeBot point=0 web=83 up=1.3MB (3%)
[7] ChatGPT point=1 web=12 up=1.2MB (2%) <--- ChatGPT
[8] 217.114.158.x point=28 web=2 up=1.1MB (2%) <--- fox (1/hr)
[9] 174.170.19.x point=0 web=57 up=0.6MB (1%)
[10] Google point=1 web=97 up=0.6MB (1%) <--- Google

TOTAL TRAFFIC: 43MB

[>] 85% of College Students Report AI Use
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-02 06:22:02


College students have integrated generative AI into their academic routines at an unprecedented scale as 85% report usage for coursework in the past year, according to new Inside Higher Ed survey data. The majority employ AI tools for brainstorming ideas, seeking tutoring assistance, and exam preparation rather than wholesale academic outsourcing. Only 25% admitted using AI to complete assignments entirely, while 19% generated full essays.

Students overwhelmingly reject institutional policing approaches, with 53% favoring education on ethical AI use over detection software deployment. Despite widespread adoption, 35% of respondents report no change in their perception of college value, while 23% view their degrees as more valuable in the AI era.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/09/01/2328220/85-of-college-students-report-ai-use?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] US Tourism Suffers 8.2% Decline
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-02 04:22:01


International tourism to the United States faces an unprecedented 8.2% decline in 2025, with the World Travel and Tourism Council projecting a $12.5 billion loss in visitor spending -- the only decline among 184 economies analyzed. Canadian visitors, traditionally comprising 28% of international arrivals, have dropped by approximately 25% through July.

Seattle tour operators report 30-50% fewer Canadian customers with many explicitly citing recent tariff policies and political rhetoric as deterrents. The newly implemented $250 "visa integrity fee" for certain countries compounds existing concerns about immigration policies and National Guard deployments in major cities. Tourism Economics now projects full recovery to pre-pandemic levels won't occur until 2029, three years later than initially forecast.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/09/01/2339241/us-tourism-suffers-82-decline?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Salesforce CEO Says AI Enabled Him To Cut 4,000 Jobs
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-02 03:22:01


An anonymous reader shares a report: Speaking to The Logan Bartlett Show on Friday, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said the use of AI agents had enabled him to "rebalance" his headcount in the customer support division by trimming 4,000 jobs. "I've reduced it from 9,000 head to about 5,000 because I need less heads," Benioff said. Benioff called the first eight months of 2025, during which an estimated 10,000 jobs have been lost to AI, "eight of the most exciting months of my career."

"There were more than 100 million leads that we have not called back at Salesforce in the last 26 years because we have not had enough people," Benioff said. "We just couldn't call them back. But we now have an agentic sales that is calling back every person that contacts us."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/09/01/2314206/salesforce-ceo-says-ai-enabled-him-to-cut-4000-jobs?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Re: Краткая информация по этому узлу
ping.local
hugeping(ping,1) — artur
2025-09-02 00:12:17


artur> Красивости всякие. Примерно как в моём сообщении выше (микрозасмешки в картинках, человечки, котики и это вот всё)

Тогда новую тему просто начни, а то мы сейчас пишем в информации об узле.

[>] EU To Boost Satellite Defences Against GPS Jamming, Defence Commissioner Says
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-01 23:22:01


An anonymous reader shares a report: The European Union will deploy additional satellites in low Earth orbit to strengthen resilience against GPS interferences and will improve capabilities to detect it, EU Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said on Monday. His remarks followed an incident on Sunday in which the GPS system aboard European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's aircraft was jammed en route to Bulgaria. Bulgarian authorities suspect the jamming was due to due to interference by Russia, an EU spokesperson said.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/09/01/1847244/eu-to-boost-satellite-defences-against-gps-jamming-defence-commissioner-says?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] The Age of Cheap Online Shopping is Ending
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-01 23:22:01


The century-old duty-free import exemption that transformed American online shopping has ended, The Atlantic argues, closing a loophole that allowed packages valued under $800 to enter the United States without tariffs. The de minimis threshold, raised from $200 in 2016, processed millions of daily shipments directly from overseas sellers to American consumers.

China lost access earlier this year; the exemption now terminates for all countries. Platforms including Shein, Temu, and marketplace sellers on Amazon, Etsy, and eBay built business models around direct shipping from manufacturing hubs in Asia and elsewhere. Import duties will apply to all international packages regardless of value, with tariffs reaching 50% for some countries. The policy shift affects everything from $30 specialty faucet parts shipped from Britain to handmade crafts from India, fundamentally altering the economics of cross-border e-commerce that emerged over the past decade.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/09/01/1818247/the-age-of-cheap-online-shopping-is-ending?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Re: test
idec.test
shaos(spnet, 2) — megahomyak
2025-09-01 23:53:05


вижу

[>] Выпуск дистрибутива AerynOS 2025.08, ранее известного как Serpent OS
lor.opennet
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-01 22:44:02


Представлен выпуск дистрибутива AerynOS 2025.08, который стал вторым обновлением после переименования проекта Serpent OS. Дистрибутив использует собственный пакетный менеджер и атомарную модель обновления системы. Разработка ведётся старой командой разработчиков дистрибутива Solus, в число которых входят Айки Доэрти (Ikey Doherty) - создатель Solus и Джошуа Стробл (Joshua Strobl) - ключевой разработчик среды рабочего стола Budgie. Загрузочный iso-образ сформирован (2 ГБ) для архитектуры x86_64-v2 и поставляется с рабочим столом GNOME.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63810

[>] Re: Краткая информация по этому узлу
ping.local
artur(ping,3) — hugeping
2025-09-01 22:42:45


Красивости всякие. Примерно как в моём сообщении выше (микрозасмешки в картинках, человечки, котики и это вот всё)
Ограничения в размерах и палитры -- вот это самое крутое.

А картинка выше -- это моя переделка картинки, которую я нашёл в галерее на сайте blackstrip.ru (декабрь 2006; а сайт по разработке программок на J2me и прочих штук).

[>] Re: Краткая информация по этому узлу
ping.local
hugeping(ping,1) — artur
2025-09-01 22:30:42


artur> А в этом разделе форума (ping.local) можно тему с картинками сделать?

Там просто жесткие ограничения на размер и есть некоторая избыточность. То-есть, приходится ужимать в палитре итд. Такое искуственное ограничение под ретро получается...

А какого рода картинки?

[>] Re: rein с SDL3
std.rein
hugeping(ping,1) — artur
2025-09-01 22:29:15


artur> Это можно будет, условно, совмещать метапарсер с какой-нибудь графикой на rein?

Ну да, в целом план такой. Я даже периодически начинаю писать, но потом снова работа и быт начинают мешать. В выходные попробую ещё раз :)

[>] Azure Budget Alerts Go Berserk After Microsoft Account Migration Misfire
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-01 21:22:01


An anonymous reader shares a report: Some Microsoft Azure customers have had a worrying few days after a problematic account migration caused forecast costs for the cloud service to skyrocket, triggering budget alerts.

An alarmed Register reader got in touch after receiving warnings from Azure's automated systems that they had significantly exceeded their budgets, and a glance at Microsoft's support forums indicates their issue was not isolated.

The problem was that costs had suddenly ramped up. One user, with a budget threshold of $85, received an automated alert indicating that their spend was forecast to reach $1,027. Another said: "We're actively seeing the same issue, costs have blown up by a crazy amount. No official notice or announcement from Microsoft either, it's appalling."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/09/01/1621214/azure-budget-alerts-go-berserk-after-microsoft-account-migration-misfire?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Americans Are Having Less Sex Than Ever
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-01 20:22:01


Americans are having a record low amount of sex -- even less than they did during the Covid-19 pandemic -- according to a new study led by researchers at the Institute for Family Studies. WSJ: This continues the downward shift in sexual activity that has been worrying sociologists and psychologists for decades. For the report, called "The Sex Recession," researchers at the IFS analyzed the data on sex and intimacy in the latest General Social Survey produced by NORC at the University of Chicago, which was collected in 2024 and released in May. They found that just 37% of people age 18-64 reported having sex at least once a week, down from 55% in 1990. The decline is even more striking for young adults: Almost a quarter of people age 18-29, or 24%, said they had not had sex in the past year; this is twice as many as in 2010.

Much has been written in recent years about the trend of young people having less sex, attributed to everything from stunted social skills to a rise in internet pornography. Yet the IFS study shows that the same trend holds true for people up to the age of 64, of all sexual orientations, both married and single. (After age 64, there was no significant change in the amount of sex people have, largely because this group reports having sex less frequently to begin with, the researchers said.)

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/09/01/1614253/americans-are-having-less-sex-than-ever?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] 'Why Do Waymos Keep Loitering in Front of My House?'
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-01 20:22:01


Waymo robotaxis are repeatedly selecting identical parking spots in front of specific Los Angeles and Arizona homes between rides, puzzling residents who document the same vehicles returning to precise locations daily. The company states its vehicles choose parking based on local regulations, existing vehicle distribution, and proximity to high-demand areas but cannot explain the algorithmic specificity.

Carnegie Mellon autonomous vehicle expert Phil Koopman attributes the behavior to machine learning systems optimizing for specific spots without variation. Waymo said it had received neighbor complaints and has designated certain locations as no-parking zones for its fleet. The vehicles comply with three-hour parking limits, according to Los Angeles Department of Transportation regulations, governing commercial passenger vehicles under 22 feet.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/09/01/1512223/why-do-waymos-keep-loitering-in-front-of-my-house?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Our Preoccupation With Protein Intake
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-01 20:22:01


A review of published meta-analyses examining protein supplementation found no evidence supporting intake beyond 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight daily, according to an analysis by cardiologist Eric Topol. The review examined multiple randomized controlled trials encompassing thousands of participants. The most widely cited Morton study, which included 1,863 participants across 49 trials, showed no statistically significant benefit at higher protein levels, with a p-value of 0.079.

Recent research from Washington University identified the essential amino acid leucine as activating mTOR in macrophages, promoting atherosclerosis progression. The mechanism was demonstrated in both mouse models and human studies measuring circulating monocyte changes following acute high-protein challenges increasing dietary protein from 22% to 50% of energy intake. Current USDA data indicates 55% of American men and 35% of women already exceed the 0.8 g/kg/day recommendation from the National Academy of Medicine. The protein supplement industry, exemplified by David bars containing 28 grams of protein in 150 calories using a modified plant fat called EPG, projects $180 million in 2025 sales.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/09/01/143252/our-preoccupation-with-protein-intake?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Выпуск volt-gui 1.2.0, GUI для оптимизации настроек, влияющих на работу игр в Linux
lor.opennet
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-01 17:44:03


Состоялся релиз приложения volt-gui 1.2.0, предоставляющего графический интерфейс для оптимизации работы игр в Linux. Программа упрощает настройку параметров графических драйверов, Mesa и ядра Linux. Например, предоставляются опции для выбора режима работы планировщика задач, управления использованием VSync, кэшированием шейдеров, включением различных оптимизаций и подменой выдаваемой информации о версиях OpenGL и Vulkan. Код написан на языке Python и распространяется под лицензией GPLv3.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63809

[>] 27 сентября в Москве пройдёт конференция разработчиков на языке Perl
lor.opennet
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-01 16:44:03


В субботу 27 сентября в Москве состоится ежегодная встреча разработчиков, использующих язык программирования Perl. Мероприятие пройдёт в день рождения Ларри Уолла, создателя языка.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63808

[>] Blizzard's 'Diablo' Devs Unionize. There's Now 3,500 Unionized Microsoft Workers
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-01 16:22:01


PC Gamer reports:

The Diablo team is the next in line to unionize at Blizzard. Over 450 developers across multiple disciplines have voted to form a union under the Communications Workers of America (CWA), and they're now the fourth major Blizzard team to do so... A wave of unions have formed at Blizzard in the last year, including the World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Story and Franchise Development teams. Elsewhere at Microsoft, Bethesda, ZeniMax Online Studios and ZeniMax QA testers have also unionized...
The CWA says over 3,500 Microsoft workers have now organized to fight for fair compensation, job security, and improved working conditions.
CWA is America's largest communications and media labor union, and in a statement, local 9510 president Jason Justice called the successful vote "part of a much larger story about turning the tide in an industry that has long overlooked its labor. Entertainment workers across film, television, music, and now video games are standing together to have a seat at the table. The strength of our movement comes from that solidarity."

And CWA local 6215 president Ron Swaggerty said "Each new organizing effort adds momentum to the nationwide movement for video game worker power."

"What began as a trickle has turned into an avalanche," writes the gaming news site Aftermath, calling the latest vote "a direct result of the union neutrality deal Microsoft struck with CWA in 2022 when it was facing regulatory scrutiny over its $68.7 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard."
We've come a long way since small units at Raven and Blizzard Albany fended off Activision Blizzard's pre-acquisition attempts at union busting in 2022 and 2023, and not a moment too soon: Microsoft's penchant for mass layoffs has cut some teams to the bone and left others warily counting down the days until their heads land on the chopping block. This new union, workers hope, will act as a bulwark...
[B]ased on preliminary conversations with prospective members, they can already hazard a few guesses as to what they'll be arm-wrestling management over at the bargaining table: pay equity, AI, crediting, and remote work.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/09/01/0413204/blizzards-diablo-devs-unionize-theres-now-3500-unionized-microsoft-workers?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] IceWM 3.9.0
lor.opennet
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-01 15:44:05


31 августа состоялся выпуск 3.9.0 быстрого и простого оконного менеджера для X Window [ IceWM ]( https://ice-wm.org ) .

Проект написан на языке C++ и распространяется по лицензии GNU LGPL 2.

( [ читать дальше... ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/opensource/18066859#cut ) )

[>] test
idec.test
megahomyak(spnet, 7) — All
2025-09-01 15:27:36


test

[>] Новый формат статистики в ii.stat
idec.talks
shaos(spnet, 2) — All
2025-09-01 13:06:54


Теперь ii://ii.stat буду посылать помесячную статистику (раньше была понедельная) - вот как оно выглядит за август:

Echoareas
────────────────────────
bot.slashdot.........530 ██████████████████████████████████████████████████▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
lor.opennet..........166 ██████████████████████████████████████████████████▒▒▒
spnet.stats...........29 █████████████████████████████
idec.talks.............8 ████████
std.rein...............2 ██
plan.9.................1 █
────────────────────────
Total                736

P.S. spnet.stats должен быть 31 по идее - наверное предыдущий снапшот не совсем 1 августа был сделан...

[>] Re: Исходники Naste.ne
idec.talks
shaos(spnet, 2) — doesnm
2025-09-01 13:02:52


Вот нашёл у себя в архивах:

http://shaos.net/files/nastene-0.6.tar.gz (279K)
http://shaos.net/files/nastene-retro-98.tar.gz (120K)
http://shaos.net/files/nastene-0.7.tar.gz (70K)
http://shaos.net/files/nastene-retro-99.tar.gz (127K)

Это точно те файлы, какие распространял автор - работают или нет не знаю...

[>] Lawsuit Says Amazon Prime Video Misleads When You 'Buy' a Long-Term Streaming Rental
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-01 12:22:01


"Typically when something is available to "buy," ownership of that good or access to that service is offered in exchange for money," writes Ars Technica.
"That's not really the case, though, when it comes to digital content."

Often, streaming services like Amazon Prime Video offer customers the options to "rent" digital content for a few days or to "buy" it. Some might think that picking "buy" means that they can view the content indefinitely. But these purchases are really just long-term licenses to watch the content for as long as the streaming service has the right to distribute it — which could be for years, months, or days after the transaction. A lawsuit recently filed against Prime Video challenges this practice and accuses the streaming service of misleading customers by labeling long-term rentals as purchases. The conclusion of the case could have implications for how streaming services frame digital content...

[The plaintiff's] complaint stands a better chance due to a California law that took effect in January banning the selling of a "digital good to a purchaser with the terms 'buy,' 'purchase,' or any other term which a reasonable person would understand to confer an unrestricted ownership interest in the digital good, or alongside an option for a time-limited rental." There are some instances where the law allows digital content providers to use words like "buy." One example is if, at the time of transaction, the seller receives acknowledgement from the customer that the customer is receiving a license to access the digital content; that they received a complete list of the license's conditions; and that they know that access to the digital content may be "unilaterally revoked...."

The case is likely to hinge on whether or not fine print and lengthy terms of use are appropriate and sufficient communication. [The plaintiff]'s complaint acknowledges that Prime Video shows relevant fine print below its "buy" buttons but says that the notice is "far below the 'buy movie' button, buried at the very bottom" of the page and is not visible until "the very last stage of the transaction," after a user has already clicked "buy."

Amazon is sure to argue that "If plaintiff didn't want to read her contract, including the small print, that's on her," says consumer attorney Danny Karon. But he tells Ars Technica "I like plaintiff's chances. A normal consumer, after whom the California statute at issue is fashioned, would consider 'buy' or 'purchase' to involve a permanent transaction, not a mere rental... If the facts are as plaintiff alleges, Amazon's behavior would likely constitute a breach of contract or statutory fraud."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/09/01/051247/lawsuit-says-amazon-prime-video-misleads-when-you-buy-a-long-term-streaming-rental?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] ii stat for August 2025
ii.stat
shaos(spnet, 2) — All
2025-09-01 12:57:45


Echoareas
────────────────────────
bot.slashdot.........530 ██████████████████████████████████████████████████▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
lor.opennet..........166 ██████████████████████████████████████████████████▒▒▒
spnet.stats...........29 █████████████████████████████
idec.talks.............8 ████████
std.rein...............2 ██
plan.9.................1 █
────────────────────────
Total                736

[>] STATS 2025-08-31
spnet.stats
root(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-01 11:11:01


TOP10 VISITORS:

[1] 37.252.14.x point=144 web=0 up=24.9MB (55%) <--- ake (6/hr)
[2] TikTok point=1 web=290 up=3.3MB (7%) <--- TikTok
[3] AwarioBot point=1 web=69 up=3.2MB (7%) <--- AwarioBot
[4] PetalBot point=3 web=432 up=2.5MB (5%) <--- PetalBot
[5] BLEXBot point=0 web=75 up=2.1MB (4%)
[6] Amazon point=0 web=116 up=1.9MB (4%)
[7] 217.114.158.x point=26 web=0 up=0.9MB (1%) <--- fox (1/hr)
[8] Facebook point=0 web=75 up=0.8MB (1%)
[9] Google point=0 web=102 up=0.6MB (1%)
[10] 174.170.19.x point=0 web=34 up=0.4MB (<1%)

TOTAL TRAFFIC: 44MB

[>] Исходники Naste.ne
idec.talks
doesnm(spnet, 6) — All
2025-09-01 10:50:18


У кого-то остался архив с Nastene 0.6 или 0.7? В веб архиве нет, да и источник давно недоступен

[>] First 'AI Music Creator' Signed by Record Label. More Ahead, or Just a Copyright Quandry?
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-01 08:22:02


"I have no musical talent at all," says Oliver McCann. "I can't sing, I can't play instruments, and I have no musical background at all!"

But the Associated Press describes 37-year-old McCann as a British "AI music creator" — and last month McCann signed with an independent record label "after one of his tracks racked up 3 million streams, in what's billed as the first time a music label has inked a contract with an AI music creator."

McCann is an example of how ChatGPT-style AI song generation tools like Suno and Udio have spawned a wave of synthetic music, a movement most notably highlighted by a fictitious group, Velvet Sundown, that went viral even though all its songs, lyrics and album art were created by AI. Experts say generative AI is set to transform the music world. However, there are scant details, so far, on how it's impacting the $29.6 billion global recorded music market, which includes about $20 billion from streaming.
The most reliable figures come from music streaming service Deezer, which estimates that 18% of songs uploaded to its platform every day are purely AI generated, though they only account for a tiny amount of total streams, hinting that few people are actually listening. Other, bigger streaming platforms like Spotify haven't released any figures on AI music... "It's a total boom. It's a tsunami," said Josh Antonuccio, director of Ohio University's School of Media Arts and Studies. The amount of AI generated music "is just going to only exponentially increase" as young people grow up with AI and become more comfortable with it, he said. [Antonuccio says later the cost of making a hit record "just keeps winnowing down from a major studio to a laptop to a bedroom. And now it's like a text prompt — several text prompts." Though there's a lack of legal clarity over copyright issues.]

Generative AI, with its ability to spit out seemingly unique content, has divided the music world, with musicians and industry groups complaining that recorded works are being exploited to train AI models that power song generation tools... Three major record companies, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Records, filed lawsuits last year against Suno and Udio for copyright infringement. In June, the two sides also reportedly entered negotiations that could go beyond settling the lawsuits and set rules for how artists are paid when AI is used to remix their songs.
GEMA, a German royalty collection society, has sued Suno, accusing it of generating music similar to songs like "Mambo No. 5" by Lou Bega and "Forever Young" by Alphaville. More than 1,000 musicians, including Kate Bush, Annie Lennox and Damon Albarn, released a silent album to protest proposed changes to U.K. laws on AI they fear would erode their creative control.
Meanwhile, other artists, such as will.i.am, Timbaland and Imogen Heap, have embraced the technology. Some users say the debate is just a rehash of old arguments about once-new technology that eventually became widely used, such as AutoTune, drum machines and synthesizers.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/25/09/01/0136236/first-ai-music-creator-signed-by-record-label-more-ahead-or-just-a-copyright-quandry?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] 400 'Tech Utopian' Refuges Consider New Crypto-Friendly State
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-01 05:22:01


"Nearly 400 students, many of them entrepreneurs, have so far made the journey to Forest City to study everything from coding to unconventional theories on statehood," reports Bloomberg.

"They're building crypto projects, fine-tuning their physiques and testing whether a shared ideology — rather than just shared territory — can bind a community."

They have descended on Forest City to attend Network School, the brainchild of former Coinbase Inc. executive and "The Network State" author Balaji Srinivasan. In this troubled megaproject once envisaged to house some 50 times its current population, they're conducting a real-life experiment of sorts with Srinivasan's vision of "startup societies" defined less by historical territory than shared beliefs in technology, cryptocurrency and light regulation... Mornings are spent in product sprints and coding sessions; afternoons in seminars exploring topics from the Meiji Restoration to Singapore's statecraft and the mechanics of decentralized governance. Guest lectures double as both technological deep dives and ideological sermons, according to half a dozen students interviewed by Bloomberg. The campus also mirrors Silicon Valley's infatuation with longevity and health, right down to a commercial-grade gym and specially designed workout routines. Students follow a protein-heavy diet...

After co-founding DNA testing startup Counsyl in 2008 and serving as its chief technology officer, Srinivasan spent five years at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, first as general partner and then as board partner. He joined Coinbase as CTO in 2018 when the crypto exchange bought a portfolio company he oversaw and left after a little over a year, according to his LinkedIn profile. In a 2013 speech at Y Combinator's Startup School, Srinivasan brought his ideas about what he saw as a fundamental conflict between some modern nation-states and innovation to a wider audience. In the address, he advocated for Silicon Valley's "ultimate exit" from the U.S., which he argued was obsolete and hostile to innovators. In essence: If the society you live in is broken, why not just "opt out" and create a new one?

"The Network State: How To Start a New Country," published in 2022, expanded on Srinivasan's "exit" concept to outline how online, ideologically aligned communities can use crypto and digital tools to form new, decentralized states. A network state can be geographically dispersed and bound together by the internet and blockchains, he says, and the aim is to gain diplomatic recognition... On the Moment of Zen podcast in September 2023, he outlined how the "Gray Tribe" — entrepreneurs, innovators and thinkers — can retake control of San Francisco from the Blues using a variety of tactics, like allying with local police. The effort would involve gaining control of territory, according to Srinivasan, who didn't advocate for violence. "Elections are just the cherry on the cake," he said. "Elections are just a reflection of your total control of the streets."

The cost of attending Network School "starts at $1,500 per month, including lodging and food, for those who opt for a shared room."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/09/01/0047230/400-tech-utopian-refuges-consider-new-crypto-friendly-state?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] OpenAI Is Scanning Users' ChatGPT Conversations and Reporting Content To Police
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-01 04:22:01


Futurism reports:

Earlier this week, buried in the middle of a lengthy blog post addressing ChatGPT's propensity for severe mental health harms, OpenAI admitted that it's scanning users' conversations and reporting to police any interactions that a human reviewer deems sufficiently threatening.

"When we detect users who are planning to harm others, we route their conversations to specialized pipelines where they are reviewed by a small team trained on our usage policies and who are authorized to take action, including banning accounts," it wrote. "If human reviewers determine that a case involves an imminent threat of serious physical harm to others, we may refer it to law enforcement."

The announcement raised immediate questions. Don't human moderators judging tone, for instance, undercut the entire premise of an AI system that its creators say can solve broad, complex problems? How is OpenAI even figuring out users' precise locations in order to provide them to emergency responders? How is it protecting against abuse by so-called swatters, who could pretend to be someone else and then make violent threats to ChatGPT in order to get their targets raided by the cops...? The admission also seems to contradict remarks by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who recently called for privacy akin to a "therapist or a lawyer or a doctor" for users talking to ChatGPT.
"Others argued that the AI industry is hastily pushing poorly-understood products to market, using real people as guinea pigs, and adopting increasingly haphazard solutions to real-world problems as they arise..."

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the news.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/08/31/2311231/openai-is-scanning-users-chatgpt-conversations-and-reporting-content-to-police?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Humans Are Being Hired to Make AI Slop Look Less Sloppy
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-01 03:22:01


Graphic designer Lisa Carstens "spends a good portion of her day working with startups and individual clients looking to fix their botched attempts at AI-generated logos," reports NBC News:

Such gigs are part of a new category of work spawned by the generative AI boom that threatened to displace creative jobs across the board: Anyone can now write blog posts, produce a graphic or code an app with a few text prompts, but AI-generated content rarely makes for a satisfactory final product on its own... Fixing AI's mistakes is not their ideal line of work, many freelancers say, as it tends to pay less than traditional gigs in their area of expertise. But some say it's what helps pay the bills....

As companies struggle to figure out their approach to AI, recent data provided to NBC News from freelance job platforms Upwork, Freelancer and Fiverr also suggest that demand for various types of creative work surged this year, and that clients are increasingly looking for humans who can work alongside AI technologies without relying on or rejecting them entirely. Data from Upwork found that although AI is already automating lower-skilled and repetitive tasks, the platform is seeing growing demand for more complex work such as content strategy or creative art direction. And over the past six months, Fiverr said it has seen a 250% boost in demand for niche tasks across web design and book illustration, from "watercolor children story book illustration" to "Shopify website design." Similarly, Freelancer saw a surge in demand this year for humans in writing, branding, design and video production, including requests for emotionally engaging content like "heartfelt speeches...."

The low pay from clients who have already cheaped out on AI tools has affected gig workers across industries, including more technical ones like coding. For India-based web and app developer Harsh Kumar, many of his clients say they had already invested much of their budget in "vibe coding" tools that couldn't deliver the results they wanted. But others, he said, are realizing that shelling out for a human developer is worth the headaches saved from trying to get an AI assistant to fix its own "crappy code." Kumar said his clients often bring him vibe-coded websites or apps that resulted in unstable or wholly unusable systems.
"Even outside of any obvious mistakes made by AI tools, some artists say their clients simply want a human touch to distinguish themselves from the growing pool of AI-generated content online..."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/08/31/2216231/humans-are-being-hired-to-make-ai-slop-look-less-sloppy?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Отчёт о развитии FreeBSD за второй квартал 2025 года
lor.opennet
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-01 01:44:03


Опубликован отчёт о развитии проекта FreeBSD за второй квартал 2025 года. Из изменений можно отметить.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63807

[>] Former US Government Site Climate.Gov Attempts Relaunch as Non-Profit
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-01 01:22:02


The U.S. government site climate.gov offered years' worth of climate-science information — until its production team was fired earlier this summer. The site "is technically still online, but has been intentionally buried by the team of political appointees who now run the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration," reports the Guardian.

But now "a team of climate communication experts — including many members of the former climate.gov team — is working to resurrect its content into a new organization with an expanded mission."

Their effort's new website, climate.us, would not only offer public-facing interpretations of climate science, but could also begin to directly offer climate-related services, such as assisting local governments with mapping increased flooding risk due to climate change. The effort is being led by climate.gov's former managing editor, Rebecca Lindsey, who, although now unemployed, has recruited several of her former colleagues to volunteer their time in an attempt to build climate.us into a thriving non-profit organization... "None of us were ready to let go of climate.gov and the mission...." Lindsey's new team has received a steady flow of outside support, including legal support, and a short-term grant that has helped them develop a vision for what they'd like to do next...
As multiyear veterans of the federal bureaucracy, at times they've been surprised by the possibilities that the new effort might offer. "We're allowed to use TikTok now," said Lindsey. "We're allowed to have a little bit of fun...
The climate.us team is also in the process of soft-launching a crowdsourced fundraising drive that Lindsey hopes they can leverage into more permanent support from a major foundation.... "[W]e do not yet have the sort of large operational funding that we will need if we're going to actually transition climate.gov operations to the non-profit space." In the meantime, Lindsey and her team have found themselves spending the summer knee-deep in the logistics of building a major non-profit from scratch.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/08/31/219220/former-us-government-site-climategov-attempts-relaunch-as-non-profit?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Beta Blockers for Heart Attack Survivors: May Have No Benefit for Most, Could Actually Harm Women
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-09-01 00:22:01


"A class of drugs called beta-blockers — used for decades as a first-line treatment after a heart attack — doesn't benefit the vast majority of patients," reports CNN. And in fact beta-blockers "may contribute to a higher risk of hospitalization and death in some women but not in men, according to groundbreaking new research..."

Women with little heart damage after their heart attacks who were treated with beta-blockers were significantly more likely to have another heart attack or be hospitalized for heart failure — and nearly three times more likely to die — compared with women not given the drug, according to a study published in the European Heart Journal and also scheduled to be presented Saturday at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Madrid... The findings, however, only applied to women with a left ventricular ejection fraction above 50%, which is considered normal function, the study said. Ejection fraction is a way of measuring how well the left side of the heart is pumping oxygenated blood throughout the body. For anyone with a score below 40% after a heart attack, beta-blockers continue to be the standard of care due to their ability to calm heart arrhythmias that may trigger a second event...

The analysis on women was part of a much larger clinical trial called REBOOT — Treatment with Beta-Blockers after Myocardial Infarction without Reduced Ejection Fraction — which followed 8,505 men and women treated for heart attacks at 109 hospitals in Spain and Italy for nearly four years. Results of the study were published in Mem>The New England Journal of Medicine and also presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress. None of the patients in the trial had a left ventricular ejection fraction below 40%, a sign of potential heart failure. "We found no benefit in using beta-blockers for men or women with preserved heart function after heart attack despite this being the standard of care for some 40 years," said Fuster, former editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and past president of the American Heart Association and the World Health Federation...

In fact, most men and women who survive heart attacks today have ejection fractions above 50%, Ibáñez said [Dr. Borja Ibáñez, scientific director for Madrid's National Center for Cardiovascular Investigation]. "Yet at this time, some 80% of patients in the US, Europe and Asia are treated with beta-blockers because medical guidelines still recommend them...."

While the study did not find any need to use beta-blockers for people with a left ventricular ejection fraction above 50% after a heart attack, a separate meta-analysis of 1,885 patients published Saturday in The Lancet did find benefits for those with scores between 40% and 50%, in which the heart may be mildly damaged. "This subgroup did benefit from a routine use of beta-blockers," said Ibáñez, who was also a coauthor on this paper. "We found about a 25% reduction in the primary endpoint, which was a composite of new heart attacks, heart failure and all-cause death."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/08/31/1854245/beta-blockers-for-heart-attack-survivors-may-have-no-benefit-for-most-could-actually-harm-women?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Re: rein с SDL3
std.rein
artur(ping,3) — hugeping
2025-09-01 00:06:12


Это можно будет, условно, совмещать метапарсер с какой-нибудь графикой на rein?

[>] Are AI Web Crawlers 'Destroying Websites' In Their Hunt for Training Data?
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-08-31 23:22:02


"AI web crawlers are strip-mining the web in their perpetual hunt for ever more content to feed into their Large Language Model mills," argues Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols at the Register.

And "when AI searchbots, with Meta (52% of AI searchbot traffic), Google (23%), and OpenAI (20%) leading the way, clobber websites with as much as 30 Terabits in a single surge, they're damaging even the largest companies' site performance..."

How much traffic do they account for? According to Cloudflare, a major content delivery network (CDN) force, 30% of global web traffic now comes from bots. Leading the way and growing fast? AI bots... Anyone who runs a website, though, knows there's a huge, honking difference between the old-style crawlers and today's AI crawlers. The new ones are site killers. Fastly warns that they're causing "performance degradation, service disruption, and increased operational costs." Why? Because they're hammering websites with traffic spikes that can reach up to ten or even twenty times normal levels within minutes.

Moreover, AI crawlers are much more aggressive than standard crawlers. As the InMotionhosting web hosting company notes, they also tend to disregard crawl delays or bandwidth-saving guidelines and extract full page text, and sometimes attempt to follow dynamic links or scripts. The result? If you're using a shared server for your website, as many small businesses do, even if your site isn't being shaken down for content, other sites on the same hardware with the same Internet pipe may be getting hit. This means your site's performance drops through the floor even if an AI crawler isn't raiding your website...

AI crawlers don't direct users back to the original sources. They kick our sites around, return nothing, and we're left trying to decide how we're to make a living in the AI-driven web world. Yes, of course, we can try to fend them off with logins, paywalls, CAPTCHA challenges, and sophisticated anti-bot technologies. You know one thing AI is good at? It's getting around those walls. As for robots.txt files, the old-school way of blocking crawlers? Many — most? — AI crawlers simply ignore them... There are efforts afoot to supplement robots.txt with llms.txt files. This is a proposed standard to provide LLM-friendly content that LLMs can access without compromising the site's performance. Not everyone is thrilled with this approach, though, and it may yet come to nothing.

In the meantime, to combat excessive crawling, some infrastructure providers, such as Cloudflare, now offer default bot-blocking services to block AI crawlers and provide mechanisms to deter AI companies from accessing their data.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/08/31/1820249/are-ai-web-crawlers-destroying-websites-in-their-hunt-for-training-data?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] What Happened When Unix Co-Creator Brian Kernighan Tried Rust?
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-08-31 22:22:02


"I'm still teaching at Princeton," 83-year-old Brian Kernighan recently told an audience at New Jersey's InfoAge Science and History Museums.

And last month the video was uploaded to YouTube, a new article points out, "showing that his talk ended with a unique question-and-answer session that turned almost historic..."

"Do you think there's any sort of merit to Rust replacing C?" one audience member asked... "Or is this just a huge hype bubble that's waiting to die down...?"

'"I have written only one Rust program, so you should take all of this with a giant grain of salt," he said. "And I found it a — pain... I just couldn't grok the mechanisms that were required to do memory safety, in a program where memory wasn't even an issue!" Speaking of Rust, Kernighan said "The support mechanism that went with it — this notion of crates and barrels and things like that — was just incomprehensibly big and slow. And the compiler was slow, the code that came out was slow..."

All in all, Kernighan had had a bad experience. "When I tried to figure out what was going on, the language had changed since the last time somebody had posted a description! And so it took days to write a program which in other languages would take maybe five minutes..." It was his one and only experience with the language, so Kernighan acknowledged that when it comes to Rust "I'm probably unduly cynical. "But I'm — I don't think it's gonna replace C right away, anyway."

Kernighan was also asked about NixOS and HolyC — but his formative experiences remain rooted in Bell Labs starts in the 1970s, where he remembers it was "great fun to hang out with these people."
And he acknowledged that the descendants of Unix now power nearly every cellphone. "I find it intriguing... And I also find it kind of irritating that underneath there is a system that I could do things with — but I can't get at it!"

Kernighan answered questions from Slashdot readers in 2009 and again in 2015...

[ Read more of this story ]( https://developers.slashdot.org/story/25/08/30/044226/what-happened-when-unix-co-creator-brian-kernighan-tried-rust?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Smelling This One Specific Scent Can Boost the Brain's Gray Matter
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-08-31 20:22:01


"According to a new study, wearing the right kind of perfume or cologne can enlarge your brain's gray matter," writes ScienceAlert

Researchers from Kyoto University and the University of Tsukuba in Japan asked 28 women to wear a specific rose scent oil on their clothing for a month, with another 22 volunteers enlisted as controls who put on plain water instead. Magnetic resonance imaging ( MRI) scans showed boosts in the gray matter volume of the rose scent participants.

While an increase in brain volume doesn't necessarily translate into more thinking power, the findings could have implications for neurodegenerative conditions such as dementia. "This study is the first to show that continuous scent inhalation changes brain structure," write the researchers in their published paper. We've seen scents like this improve memory and cognitive performance, but here the team wanted to try a longer-term experiment to see how triggering our sense of smell might lead to measurable changes in brain structure...

It's difficult to pin down exactly what's causing this boost in gray matter. Another possibility raised by the researchers is that the rose scent is actually labeled as unpleasant by the brain, with the subsequent emotional regulation responsible for the PCC working harder and increasing in size. The researchers hope that the findings could be useful in the development of aromatherapies that boost mental health and brain plasticity...
The research was published in the Brain Research Bulletin.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/08/31/0621235/smelling-this-one-specific-scent-can-boost-the-brains-gray-matter?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Rare Snail Has a 1-in-40,000 Chance of Finding a Mate. New Zealand Begins the Search
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-08-31 19:22:01


There's something rare about a snail named Ned, reports CNN:
Ned's shell spirals left, while almost all other snails have right spiraling shells. It's a one in 40,000 genetic condition among the common corno espersum... "I was quite breathless for a moment," says Giselle Clarkson, an author, illustrator and self-described 'observologist' who found Ned while digging in her garden in Wairarapa, just north of capital Wellington. "I was just pulling out this plant, and a snail tumbled into the dirt and I was just about to scoop it up and just chuck it off to the side, when I realized what I had," Clarkson told CNN. It was a serendipitous moment for Ned, now named for Homer Simpson's left-handed neighbor. Clarkson was aware of this rare asymmetry in snails from her work with the magazine New Zealand Geographic.

But "should Ned hope to mate one day, it will have to be with another very rare left-coiled snail," notes the Washington Post (since, as CNN points out, this snail's reproductive organs "don't line up" with those of snails with right-spiraling shells). This has sparked a national campaign to locate a compatible snail — something that was last successfully attempted in 2016.

"If 40,000 people read this," the campaign explains, "chances are, Ned's dreams will come true."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/08/30/054244/rare-snail-has-a-1-in-40000-chance-of-finding-a-mate-new-zealand-begins-the-search?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Study: Young Children Diagnosed with ADHD Often Prescribed Medication Too Quickly
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-08-31 16:22:01


"A new study released Friday found that young children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, are often prescribed medication too quickly," reports CBS News:

The study, led by Stanford Medicine and published in JAMA Network Open, examined the health records of nearly 10,000 preschool-aged children ages 3 to 5 between 2016 and 2023 who were diagnosed with ADHD... The Stanford study found that about 68% of those children who were diagnosed with ADHD were prescribed medications before age 7, most often stimulants such as Ritalin, which can help children focus their attention and regulate their emotions. The turn to medication often came quickly, according to the study. About 42% of the children who were diagnosed with ADHD were prescribed drugs within 30 days of diagnosis, the study found.

"We don't have concerns about the toxicity of the medications for 4- and 5-year-olds, but we do know that there is a high likelihood of treatment failure, because many families decide the side effects outweigh the benefits," Dr. Yair Bannett, assistant professor of pediatrics at Stanford Medicine and the lead author of the study, said in a statement. Those side effects can include irritability, aggressiveness and emotional problems, according to Bannett. "The high rate of medication prescriptions among preschool-age children with ADHD and the lack of delay between initial diagnosis and prescription require further investigation to assess the appropriateness of early medication treatment," the researchers concluded.

The study also found that the vast majority of the young children diagnosed with ADHD, about 76%, were boys.

CBS News interviewed Jamie Howard, senior clinical psychologist from the Child Mind Institute (who was not involved in the study). Howard said when treating ADHD in young children, clinical guidelines call for starting with "behavioral intervention...."

"I think that people have an association with ADHD and stimulant medication... But there is actually a lot more than that. And we want to give kids the opportunity to use these other strategies first, and then if they need medication, it can be incredibly helpful for a lot of kids."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/08/31/0430224/study-young-children-diagnosed-with-adhd-often-prescribed-medication-too-quickly?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] 'Swatting' Hits a Dozen US Universities. The FBI is Investigating
bot.slashdot
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-08-31 12:22:01


The Washington Post covers "a string of false reports of active shooters at a dozen U.S. universities this month as students returned to campus."

The FBI is investigating the incidents, according to a spokesperson who declined to specify the nature of the probe. While universities have proved a popular swatting target, the agency "is seeing an increase in swatting events across the country," the FBI spokesperson said... Local officials are frustrated by the anonymous calls tying up first responders, straining public safety budgets and needlessly traumatizing college students who grew up in an era in which gun violence has in some way shaped their school experience...

The recent string of swattings began Thursday with a false report to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, quickly followed by one about Villanova University later that day. Hoaxes at 10 more schools followed... Villanova also received a second threat. As the calls about shootings came in, officials on many of the campuses pushed out emergency notifications directing students and employees to shelter in place, while police investigated what turned out to be false reports. (Iowa State was able to verify the lack of a threat before a campuswide alert was sent, its police chief said. [They had a live video feed from the location the caller claimed to be from.]) In at least three cases, 911 calls reporting a shooting purported to come from campus libraries, where the sound of gunshots could be heard over the phone, officials told The Washington Post...

Although false bomb reports, shooter threats and swatting incidents are not new, bad actors used to be more easily traceable through landline phones. But the era of internet-based services, virtual private networks, and anonymous text and chat tools has made unmasking hoax callers far more challenging... In 2023, a Post investigation found that more than 500 schools across the United States were subject to a coordinated swatting effort that may have had origins abroad...

[In Chattanooga, Tennessee last week] a dispatcher heard gunfire during a call reporting an on-campus shooting. "We grabbed everybody that wasn't already out on the street and got to that location," said University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Police spokesman Brett Fuchs. About 150 officers from several agencies responded. There was no shooter.

The New York Times reports that an online group called "Purgatory" is "suspected of being connected to several of the episodes, including reports of shootings, according to cybersecurity experts, law enforcement agencies and the group members' own posts in a social media chat." (Though the Times, couldn't verify the group's claims.)

Federal authorities previously connected the same network to a series of bomb scares and bogus shooting reports in early 2024, for which three men pleaded guilty this year... Bragging about its recent activities, Purgatory said that it could arrange more swatting episodes for a fee.

USA Today tries to quantify the reach of swatting:
Estimated swatting incidents jumped from 400 in 2011 to more than 1,000 in 2019, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which cited a former FBI agent whose expertise is in swatting. From January 2023 to June 2024 alone, more than 800 instances of swatting were recorded at U.S. elementary, middle and high schools, according to the K-12 School Shootings Database, created by a University of Central Florida doctoral student in response to the Parkland High School shooting in 2018.tise is in swatting... David Riedman, a data scientist and creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database, estimates that in 2023, it cost $82,300,000 for police to respond to false threats.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the news.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/08/31/0520222/swatting-hits-a-dozen-us-universities-the-fbi-is-investigating?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] STATS 2025-08-30
spnet.stats
root(spnet, 1) — All
2025-08-31 11:11:01


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