Comment Rearranging the furniture (Score 1) 39
is less work than building the house.
The odd general fascination with cosmetics is not utilitarian, but piddling with cosmetics gives the illusion of accomplishment as if change were progress.
Submission + - Public Domain Day 2026
davidwr writes: January 1, 2026 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1930 are open to all, as are sound recordings from 1925!
By Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle CC BY 4.0
On January 1, 2026, thousands of copyrighted works from 1930 enter the US public domain, along with sound recordings from 1925. They will be free for all to copy, share, and build upon. The literary highlights range from William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying to Agatha Christie’s The Murder at the Vicarage and the first four Nancy Drew novels. From cartoons and comic strips, the characters Betty Boop, Pluto (originally named Rover), and Blondie and Dagwood made their first appearances. Films from the year featured Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, the Marx Brothers, and John Wayne in his first leading role. Among the public domain compositions are I Got Rhythm, Georgia on My Mind, and Dream a Little Dream of Me. We are also celebrating paintings from Piet Mondrian and Paul Klee.
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Last year's Slashdot coverage included Tintin, Popeye Enter Public Domain as 1929 Works Released (Jan 1) and Internet Archive Celebrates New Public Domain Works with Remixes in Short Film Contest (Feb. 8).
By Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle CC BY 4.0
On January 1, 2026, thousands of copyrighted works from 1930 enter the US public domain, along with sound recordings from 1925. They will be free for all to copy, share, and build upon. The literary highlights range from William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying to Agatha Christie’s The Murder at the Vicarage and the first four Nancy Drew novels. From cartoons and comic strips, the characters Betty Boop, Pluto (originally named Rover), and Blondie and Dagwood made their first appearances. Films from the year featured Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, the Marx Brothers, and John Wayne in his first leading role. Among the public domain compositions are I Got Rhythm, Georgia on My Mind, and Dream a Little Dream of Me. We are also celebrating paintings from Piet Mondrian and Paul Klee.
—
Last year's Slashdot coverage included Tintin, Popeye Enter Public Domain as 1929 Works Released (Jan 1) and Internet Archive Celebrates New Public Domain Works with Remixes in Short Film Contest (Feb. 8).
Comment That matters little IRL. (Score 1) 121
In the vast majority of military careers pols matter little. Careers outlast multiple POTUS and mostly take place far away from them. When you're chilling at a NATO base, Japan or South Korea what happens in DC is of nil interest unless you have or want orders there.
Why would anyone care what the President of the US thinks of their job so long as their pay shows up? I don't value the respect of those I hold in contempt nor grudge their indifference to me. We owe each other nothing not spelt out in law.
From a
Vesting a reliable recession-resistant retirement is absolutely worth killing for, especially after a mere twenty years which leaves time to enjoy the second half of your life. Retiring in your forties frees you to pursue a second career or whatever steams your Speedos. The armed forces need younger, deployable troops capable of expeditionary warfare. When those troops age out and retire their accumulated experience remains valuable to support the same hardware and missions differently.
The point of all those Stanford degrees was to get money. Lack of jobs suggests using those credentials elsewhere, preferably in careers resistant to economic downturns and inconvenient to outsource.
Comment Commission as an officer (Score 2) 121
American rewards with money what it truly values, and it truly values war.
A stint in the Space Force, Air Force etc can open DoD and many other doors via the human network officers naturally acquire. It's an instant career or a useful stepping stone. The security clearance won't hurt either.
The Guard and Reserve are options for those wanting to hold civilian employment but active duty retires much sooner. An officer makes enough to fully retire at twenty years and never need to work again.
Comment Pretending to be a cartoon character isn't prison. (Score 1) 56
Games are mere toys freely adopted and freely abandoned. There is no "prison" and such hyperbole is absurd.
Of course your comment on Palladium is correct, but games are mere trifling amusement with no involuntary physical constraints like a prison cell.
Submission + - FTC: Instacart to refund $60M over deceptive subscription tactics (bleepingcomputer.com)
alternative_right writes: Grocery delivery service Instacart will refund $60 million to settle FTC claims that it misled customers with false advertising and unlawfully enrolled them in paid subscriptions.
Submission + - Humans Made a Space Barrier Around Earth that Is Saving Us...Whoops! (popularmechanics.com)
joshuark writes: The mysterious zone of anthropogenic space weather is caused by specific kinds of radio waves that we’ve been blasting into the atmosphere for decades, but experts say the expanding band actually helps protect humankind from dangerous space radiation. NASA first observed this belt in 2012. The agency sends probes to explore different parts of our solar system, including the Van Allen Belts: a huge, torus-shaped area of radiation that surrounds Earth. The donut shape follows the equator, leaving the North and South Poles free.
The Van Allen Belts are related to and affected by the magnetosphere induced by the nonstop bombardment of the sun’s radiation. They affect benign-seeming magnetic effects like the Northern Lights, as well as more destructive ones like magnetic storms. People planning spaceflight through areas affected by the Van Allen Belts, for example, must develop radiation shielding to protect crew as well as equipment—and most spacecraft launch from as near to the equator as possible, right in the Van Allen zone.
So, what’s our new protective barrier? The same probes that launched in 2012 to help us understand the Belts better in the first place detected this phenomenon, and in 2017, the probes gave us the first evidence of the radio-wave barrier emanating from Earth.
Why is this? Well, the very low frequency (VLF) waves are exactly right to cancel out and repel the radiative advances of the Van Allen Belts as a matter of total coincidence. In fact, NASA initially considered this a true coincidence, saying that a radio wave area happened to match exactly with the edge of the Van Allen Belts.
Isn’t it interesting that VLF blankets the Earth without interfering with literally any other radio signal, for example, or the many other kinds of waves that flow around us all the time, but makes it into space far enough to push away harmful radiation?
This means that, for example, space programs could develop VLF technology to punch holes for spacecraft to travel through. As always, truth is stranger than fiction.
Maybe we won't have to worry about the Van Allen belt combusting and cooking all life on Earth as was suggested in the movie "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea"...phew!
The Van Allen Belts are related to and affected by the magnetosphere induced by the nonstop bombardment of the sun’s radiation. They affect benign-seeming magnetic effects like the Northern Lights, as well as more destructive ones like magnetic storms. People planning spaceflight through areas affected by the Van Allen Belts, for example, must develop radiation shielding to protect crew as well as equipment—and most spacecraft launch from as near to the equator as possible, right in the Van Allen zone.
So, what’s our new protective barrier? The same probes that launched in 2012 to help us understand the Belts better in the first place detected this phenomenon, and in 2017, the probes gave us the first evidence of the radio-wave barrier emanating from Earth.
Why is this? Well, the very low frequency (VLF) waves are exactly right to cancel out and repel the radiative advances of the Van Allen Belts as a matter of total coincidence. In fact, NASA initially considered this a true coincidence, saying that a radio wave area happened to match exactly with the edge of the Van Allen Belts.
Isn’t it interesting that VLF blankets the Earth without interfering with literally any other radio signal, for example, or the many other kinds of waves that flow around us all the time, but makes it into space far enough to push away harmful radiation?
This means that, for example, space programs could develop VLF technology to punch holes for spacecraft to travel through. As always, truth is stranger than fiction.
Maybe we won't have to worry about the Van Allen belt combusting and cooking all life on Earth as was suggested in the movie "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea"...phew!
Submission + - James Webb Space Telescope confirms 1st 'runaway' supermassive black hole (space.com) 1
schwit1 writes: Astronomers have made a truly mind-boggling discovery using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST): a runaway black hole 10 million times larger than the sun, rocketing through space at a staggering 2.2 million miles per hour (1,000 kilometers per second).
That not only makes this the first confirmed runaway supermassive black hole, but this object is also one of the fastest-moving bodies ever detected, rocketing through its home, a pair of galaxies named the "Cosmic Owl," at 3,000 times the speed of sound at sea level here on Earth. If that isn't astounding enough, the black hole is pushing forward a literal galaxy-sized "bow-shock" of matter in front of it, while simultaneously dragging a 200,000 light-year-long tail behind it, within which gas is accumulating and triggering star formation.
That not only makes this the first confirmed runaway supermassive black hole, but this object is also one of the fastest-moving bodies ever detected, rocketing through its home, a pair of galaxies named the "Cosmic Owl," at 3,000 times the speed of sound at sea level here on Earth. If that isn't astounding enough, the black hole is pushing forward a literal galaxy-sized "bow-shock" of matter in front of it, while simultaneously dragging a 200,000 light-year-long tail behind it, within which gas is accumulating and triggering star formation.
Submission + - Texas sues TV makers for taking screenshots of what people watch (bleepingcomputer.com)
mprindle writes: "The Texas Attorney General sued five major television manufacturers, accusing them of illegally collecting their users' data by secretly recording what they watch using Automated Content Recognition (ACR) technology."
Comment Re:Yet another Fluxbox / Windowmaker? (Score 1) 23
"And the presentation looks suspiciously like yet another WM."
Of course. Never forget the true reason many new users adopt Linux is desktop "ricing". Utilitarian considerations only matter to the tiny minority of utilitarian users.
Most computers are entertainment machines (which is fine) and that consumer demographic (like those who automatically like social media posts with cat pictures) are easy to please.
Linux adoption greatly benefits from the limited appearance options offered by Windows. If MSFT want quicker uptake of new Windows versions it would be wise to invest in easy appearance customization.
Understanding users as they are is key to giving them what they want. That need not be honestly explained because admitting love for trifles is uncomfortable for some.
Submission + - Young Journalists Drone, Expose Russian Ships Off Dutch-German Coasts (digitaldigging.org)
schwit1 writes: Seven German journalism students, as a continuation of their OSINT course project, tracked the movements of ships with Russian crews off the coasts of the Netherlands and Germany and linked them to swarms of drones appearing over European military airfields and other strategic sites.
The guys not only analyzed thousands of data points, but also used leaked documents, established connections with sources in European agencies, and drove 2,500 km across three countries chasing one of the ships – even launching their own drone to fly over it.
At the end of the article, there’s precise data on the vessels, so you can follow them yourself.
The guys not only analyzed thousands of data points, but also used leaked documents, established connections with sources in European agencies, and drove 2,500 km across three countries chasing one of the ships – even launching their own drone to fly over it.
At the end of the article, there’s precise data on the vessels, so you can follow them yourself.
Submission + - Traveling to the US will require you to reveal your social media for 5 years. (federalregister.gov)
Z00L00K writes: Agency Information Collection Activities; Revision; Arrival and Departure
Record
3. Mandatory Social Media: In order to comply with the January 2025 Executive Order 14161 (Protecting the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats), CBP is adding social media as a mandatory data element for an ESTA application. The data element will require ESTA applicants to provide their social media from the last 5 years.
3. Mandatory Social Media: In order to comply with the January 2025 Executive Order 14161 (Protecting the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats), CBP is adding social media as a mandatory data element for an ESTA application. The data element will require ESTA applicants to provide their social media from the last 5 years.
Submission + - Elon Musk admits DOGE was a waste of time (and money) (yahoo.com)
echo123 writes: Elon Musk appeared to admit for the first time that his work at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency was a total waste of time—which also destroyed his reputation.
He told Katie Miller, who is married to Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, that he would not take the controversial post in Washington, D.C., if he had his time over again.
“I think instead of doing DOGE, I would have basically built—worked on my companies, essentially," he told The Katie Miller Podcast.
“If you could go back and start from scratch like it’s January 20th all again, would you go back and do it differently? And, knowing what you know now, do you think there’s ever a place to restart?”
After a deep sigh, Elon Musk, 54, replied, “I mean, no, I don’t think so.”
“You gave up a lot to DOGE,” she said.
“Yeah,” he conceded, sadly.
DOGE oversaw a $220 billion jump in federal spending—not including interest—in the fiscal year, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Bill Gates has warned Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts will cause ‘millions of deaths’
He told Katie Miller, who is married to Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, that he would not take the controversial post in Washington, D.C., if he had his time over again.
“I think instead of doing DOGE, I would have basically built—worked on my companies, essentially," he told The Katie Miller Podcast.
“If you could go back and start from scratch like it’s January 20th all again, would you go back and do it differently? And, knowing what you know now, do you think there’s ever a place to restart?”
After a deep sigh, Elon Musk, 54, replied, “I mean, no, I don’t think so.”
“You gave up a lot to DOGE,” she said.
“Yeah,” he conceded, sadly.
DOGE oversaw a $220 billion jump in federal spending—not including interest—in the fiscal year, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Bill Gates has warned Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts will cause ‘millions of deaths’
Submission + - Maximum entropy reveals how mutations alter enzymes and drive drug resistance (phys.org)
alternative_right writes: Across several studies, the speed of an enzyme's activity correlated strongly with a statistical measure called "maximum entropy." The breakthrough meant they could use a purely statistical and computational approach to determine the maximum entropy—thus, predicting enzyme function.
Instead of the most mutationally explosive virus known, they turned to pathogens with more constrained evolutionary landscapes. One of the first was hepatitis C virus (HCV). There, the picture changed. Maximum entropy aligned much more cleanly with the mutations the virus actually adopted under drug pressure. That opened the possibility of forecasting its "next move," as Warshel put it—a way of playing chess with the virus, using both the strength of each mutation and its likelihood.
Instead of the most mutationally explosive virus known, they turned to pathogens with more constrained evolutionary landscapes. One of the first was hepatitis C virus (HCV). There, the picture changed. Maximum entropy aligned much more cleanly with the mutations the virus actually adopted under drug pressure. That opened the possibility of forecasting its "next move," as Warshel put it—a way of playing chess with the virus, using both the strength of each mutation and its likelihood.
Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Locally hosted security cameras 2
Randseed writes: With the likes of Google Nest, Ring, and others cooperating with law enforcement, I started to look for affordable wireless IP security cameras that I can put around my house. Unfortunately, it looks like almost every thing now incorporates some kind of cloud-based slop. All I really want is to put up some cameras, hook them up to my LAN, and install something like Zoneminder. What are the most economical, wireless IP security cameras that I can set up with my server?
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