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aliks writes:

ArsTechnica has a story about a painted altar in the mesoAmerican city of Tikal, revealing clues about the Aztec takeover of Tikal a couple of thousand years ago.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/04/painted-altar-in-maya-city-of-tikal-reveals-the-aftermath-of-an-ancient-coup/

LIDAR scans effectively strip away the jungle revealing the ruins of ancient buildings and this has triggered a whole mass of new information. The original article is in Antiquity magazine for those who want more detail [link below]:

Here is a quick summary:

"A family altar in the Maya city of Tikal offers a glimpse into events in an enclave of the city's foreign overlords in the wake of a local coup.

Archaeologists recently unearthed the altar in a quarter of the Maya city of Tikal that had lain buried under dirt and rubble for about the last 1,500 years. The altar—and the wealthy household behind the courtyard it once adorned—stands just a few blocks from the center of Tikal, one of the most powerful cities of Maya civilization. But the altar and the courtyard around it aren't even remotely Maya-looking; their architecture and decoration look like they belong 1,000 kilometers to the west in the city of Teotihuacan, in central Mexico.

The altar reveals the presence of powerful rulers from Teotihuacan who were there at a time when a coup ousted Tikal's Maya rulers and replaced them with a Teotihuacan puppet government. It also reveals how hard those foreign rulers fell from favor when Teotihuacan's power finally waned centuries later."

Journal: DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2025.3

Original Submission

owl writes:

http://www.righto.com/2025/04/commodore-pet-repair.html

In 1977, Commodore released the PET computer, a quirky home computer that combined the processor, a tiny keyboard, a cassette drive for storage, and a trapezoidal screen in a metal unit. The Commodore PET, the Apple II, and Radio Shack's TRS-80 started the home computer market with ready-to-run computers, systems that were called in retrospect the 1977 Trinity. I did much of my early programming on the PET, so when someone offered me a non-working PET a few years ago, I took it for nostalgic reasons.

You'd think that a home computer would be easy to repair, but it turned out to be a challenge. The chips in early PETs are notorious for failures and, sure enough, we found multiple bad chips. Moreover, these RAM and ROM chips were special designs that are mostly unobtainable now. In this post, I'll summarize how we repaired the system, in case it helps anyone else.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Some Microsoft organizations are looking to increase their span of control, defined as the number of direct reports or subordinates a manager or supervisor oversees. It also wants to increase the number of coders compared to non-coders on projects,

According to anonymous people familiar with the matter who spoke to Business Insider, Microsoft has yet to decide how many jobs will be cut, though one person said it could be a significant portion of their team.

Other companies such as Amazon and Google are also reducing the number of managers and executives in their drive for efficiency.

Microsoft wants to decrease the ratio of product/program managers (PMs) to engineers. Microsoft security boss Charlie Bell's division has a ratio of around 5.5 engineers to one PM, but he wants that to reach 10:1.

News that Microsoft is targeting non-coders in these cuts is in contrast to the many stories about generative AI replacing the need for programmers. Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott made the startling prediction last week that 95% of all code will be generated by AI by 2030. He added that humans would still be involved in the process, though it's easy to imagine that there will be fewer of them.

At the start of the year, Microsoft confirmed it was implementing performance-based layoffs, though it said those let go would be replaced with new hires. Microsoft rates employees on a scale of 0 to 200 and bases their stock awards and bonuses on this rating. Anyone in the 60 to 80 range – 100 is average – is rated as a low performer.

Soon after those performance cuts were revealed, the company said it was making more job cuts across its business, impacting employees in the gaming, experience & devices, sales, and security divisions.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Puzzling observation by JWST: Galaxies in the deep universe rotate in the same direction:

In just over three years since its launch, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has generated significant and unprecedented insights into the far reaches of space, and a new study by a Kansas State University researcher provides one of the simplest and most puzzling observations of the deep universe yet.

In images of the deep universe taken by the James Webb Space Telescope Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, the vast majority of the galaxies rotate in the same direction, according to research by Lior Shamir, associate professor of computer science at the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering. About two thirds of the galaxies rotate clockwise, while just about a third of the galaxies rotate counterclockwise.

The study—published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society—was done with 263 galaxies in the JADES field that were clear enough to identify their direction of rotation.

"The analysis of the galaxies was done by quantitative analysis of their shapes, but the difference is so obvious that any person looking at the image can see it," Shamir said. "There is no need for special skills or knowledge to see that the numbers are different. With the power of the James Webb Space Telescope, anyone can see it."

In a random universe, the number of galaxies that rotate in one direction should be roughly the same as the number of galaxies that rotate in the other direction. The fact that JWST shows that most galaxies rotate in the same direction is therefore unexpected.

"It is still not clear what causes this to happen, but there are two primary possible explanations," Shamir said.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

After the Estonian startup KrattWorks dispatched the first batch of its Ghost Dragon ISR quadcopters to Ukraine in mid-2022, the company's officers thought they might have six months or so before they'd need to reconceive the drones in response to new battlefield realities. The 46-centimeter-wide flier was far more robust than the hobbyist-grade UAVs that came to define the early days of the drone war against Russia. But within a scant three months, the Estonian team realized their painstakingly fine-tuned device had already become obsolete.

Rapid advances in jamming and spoofing—the only efficient defense against drone attacks—set the team on an unceasing marathon of innovation. Its latest technology is a neural-network-driven optical navigation system, which allows the drone to continue its mission even when all radio and satellite-navigation links are jammed. It began tests in Ukraine in December, part of a trend toward jam-resistant, autonomous UAVs (uncrewed aerial vehicles). The new fliers herald yet another phase in the unending struggle that pits drones against the jamming and spoofing of electronic warfare, which aims to sever links between drones and their operators. There are now tens of thousands of jammers straddling the front lines of the war, defending against drones that are not just killing soldiers but also destroying armored vehicles, other drones, industrial infrastructure, and even tanks.

"The situation with electronic warfare is moving extremely fast," says Martin Karmin, KrattWorks' cofounder and chief operations officer. "We have to constantly iterate. It's like a cat-and-mouse game."

[...] Now in its third generation, the Ghost Dragon has come a long way since 2022. Its original command-and-control-band radio was quickly replaced with a smart frequency-hopping system that constantly scans the available spectrum, looking for bands that aren't jammed. It allows operators to switch among six radio-frequency bands to maintain control and also send back video even in the face of hostile jamming.

The drone's dual-band satellite-navigation receiver can switch among the four main satellite positioning services: GPS, Galileo, China's BeiDou, and Russia's GLONASS. It's been augmented with a spoof-proof algorithm that compares the satellite-navigation input with data from onboard sensors. The system provides protection against sophisticated spoofing attacks that attempt to trick drones into self-destruction by persuading them they're flying at a much higher altitude than they actually are.

anubi writes:

Marketing professionals are always looking for that "edge" that gets them noticed instead of automatically being kicked out by spam filters which were put in place specifically to handle exactly what they are doing.

Here is how AI is learning about individual targets in order to craft specifically worded unique business communication designed to appeal to maybe even one decision-maker in a corporate environment.

https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/04/openais-gpt-helps-spammers-send-blast-of-80000-messages-that-bypassed-filters/

Spammers used OpenAI to generate messages that were unique to each recipient, allowing them to bypass spam-detection filters and blast unwanted messages to more than 80,000 websites in four months, researchers said Wednesday.

The finding, documented in a post published by security firm SentinelOne's SentinelLabs, underscores the double-edged sword wielded by large language models. The same thing that makes them useful for benign tasks—the breadth of data available to them and their ability to use it to generate content at scale—can often be used in malicious activities just as easily. OpenAI revoked the spammers' account in February.

The spam blast is the work of AkiraBot—a framework that automates the sending of messages in large quantities to promote shady search optimization services to small- and medium-size websites. AkiraBot used python-based scripts to rotate the domain names advertised in the messages. It also used OpenAI's chat API tied to the model gpt-4o-mini to generate unique messages customized to each site it spammed, a technique that likely helped it bypass filters that look for and block identical content sent to large numbers of sites. The messages are delivered through contact forms and live chat widgets embedded into the targeted websites.

"AkiraBot's use of LLM-generated spam message content demonstrates the emerging challenges that AI poses to defending websites against spam attacks," SentinelLabs researchers Alex Delamotte and Jim Walter wrote. "The easiest indicators to block are the rotating set of domains used to sell the Akira and ServiceWrap SEO offerings, as there is no longer a consistent approach in the spam message contents as there were with previous campaigns selling the services of these firms."

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    Right now, I can toss email and phone threat communications from "toll-road authorities" who claim I violated their automated tolling machine. It seems all the evidence one needs to "prove" another's "guilt" is an accusation followed by publicly available "evidence" curated for this specific attack.

However, if they have to involve the United States Postal Service (USPS) , it's a felony.

https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/crime-penalties/federal/Federal-mail-fraud.htm

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Ubisoft's response to a lawsuit over a recently shut-down online game argues that paying customers never truly owned the title. The case has sparked renewed calls for legislation to protect players when games reach end-of-life status.

Two California plaintiffs filed suit against Ubisoft last year after the company shut down servers for The Crew, citing licensing restrictions. Publishers often delist driving games like The Crew and Forza Horizon when licensing agreements with car manufacturers expire.

Users typically retain access to games they purchased prior to delisting, and physical discs often continue to function. However, The Crew is an online-only title, and once Ubisoft deactivated its servers, launching the game merely starts a restricted demo version. Additionally, Ubisoft removed the game from customers' Ubisoft Connect libraries, offering refunds only to those who purchased it recently.

The California plaintiffs, who bought physical copies of the 2014 title years ago, allege that Ubisoft misled customers. They also point to other games that received offline modes when they reached end-of-life as a fairer precedent.

In response, Ubisoft argued that The Crew's packaging clearly states that purchase only grants a temporary license, and that the statute of limitations for the claim has passed. Still, the company has pledged to introduce offline modes for The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest.

The plaintiffs then pivoted to argue that The Crew's in-game currency qualifies as a gift certificate under California law, which prohibits expiration. They also pointed to the game's packaging, which states that activation codes remain valid until 2099, implying that the game should remain downloadable until then. Additionally, the plaintiffs contended that the statute of limitations only began in 2023, when Ubisoft announced its plans to shut down the servers.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The high-altitude endeavor, undertaken by the orbital servicing enterprise Astroscale U.S., is slated to occur in the summer of 2026, the company announced this week. This Department of Defense-funded mission will see Astroscale's 660-pound craft refuel a satellite with the propellant hydrazine, then maneuver to a fueling depot to fill up with more fuel, and then refuel another asset. (All the involved assets haven't yet been revealed by the Space Force.)

It will be the first time a Space Force craft is refueled in orbit. Such a fuel shuttle could keep missions in space longer and eliminate the need for any craft to suspend its mission to retrieve thruster propellant. It's a novel type of full-service gas station.

"This changes fundamentally how we do things in space," Ian Thomas, Astroscale U.S.' Refueler Program Manager, told Mashable.

After launching, the refueled craft will travel to a region called geostationary orbit, which is a unique place around Earth where spacecraft orbit at same rate Earth is rotating — meaning they stay locked in the same position relative to our planet. There, Astroscale's craft will carefully approach its first Space Force satellite target, called Tetra-5, and transfer fuel. The refueler will then thrust away and inspect the scene with a specialized camera to ensure no valuable fuel is leaking. Then, the refueler will fly to a nearby fuel depot, or gas station, and attach and pull fuel from the depot before traveling to its second refueling target.

"The point of the mission is to make sure all the different parts are viable and work," Thomas explained. "You have a fuel depot, a client, and us."

[...] This isn't Astroscale's first orbital rodeo. In a separate mission intended to deorbit large pieces of space debris (called Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan), the company has already closely approached a large rocket stage to test close proximity maneuverability and reconnaissance; next up, an Astroscale spacecraft will use a robotic arm to bring the large 36-foot-long spent rocket stage down to Earth, in 2028.

But before then, the company may prove that running a fuel depot in Earth's orbit isn't just feasible; it could redefine how expensive orbiting spacecraft — whether used for national security, communications, or science — operate in space.

"If you run out of fuel, you run out of life," Thomas said.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Elon Musk’s growing power over the fledgling LEO (low Earth orbit) satellite sector has long been worrying global military leaders, especially after one incident a few years ago where Musk restricted Ukraine’s access to the service near Crimea because he personally opposed Ukraine’s military aims (defending itself from unprovoked invasion).

And while it took a while, there’s evidence Europe and Ukraine are finally starting the necessary migration off of Elon Musk’s satellite communications platform. Last week Reuters reported that Berlin has been paying for Ukraine’s access to France’s Eutelsat for much of the last year. Initial numbers are low, but they’re hoping to ramp up quickly:

Eutelsat’s OneWeb division is Starlink’s primary rival in the low-Earth orbit satellite space. The company has around 650 LEO satellites in orbit at approximately 1,200 km (750 mi) altitude, while Starlink has a notable early advantage with over 7100 LEO satellites in orbit. Other companies, like Bezos’ Project Kuiper, are poised to enter the historically challenging market with high operational costs.

Elon Musk’s increasingly unhinged behavior continues to be a wonderful marketing opportunity for companies that want to provide alternatives to people who prefer their companies with a skosh less racism and fascism. Trump’s annoying tariffs have also been driving foreign governments (like Canada) away from Starlink, though it’s all happening slower than many would like.

Don’t feel bad for Elon Musk though. Potentially unsecured Starlink terminals were recently attached to the White House roof, creating major new potential cybersecurity risks. U.S. Republicans are also trying to hijack the $42.5 billion U.S. infrastructure bill broadband grant program and redirect as much of the money as possible to Musk.

Original Submission

taylorvich writes:

https://newatlas.com/learning-memory/tapping-finger-hearing-comprehension/

French scientists have uncovered an odd superpower triggered by tapping your finger to a rhythm – it can help you hear and understand someone talking to you in a noisy environment, such as a party or a busy cafe. While it may sound a little woo-woo, there is a reason for it.

Aix-Marseille University researchers hypothesized that prepping the natural rhythm of a brain by finger-tapping could help you then better "tune in" to speech. Previous research into the "rhythmic priming effect" has looked into various modes of delivery and its impact on speech – such as music in language comprehension and therapy for children with developmental language disorder (DLD). But its application in broader contexts is largely unknown.

"The motor system is known to process temporal information, and moving rhythmically while listening to a melody can improve auditory processing," the scientists wrote. "In three interrelated behavioral experiments, we demonstrate that this effect translates to speech processing. Motor priming improves the efficiency of subsequent naturalistic speech-in-noise processing under specific conditions."

In the first experiment, 35 participants each tapped a finger to different beats – slow, medium, fast – before having to take in a lengthy spoken sentence buried in intrusive background noise, noting down words they'd identified. The idea is that because speech has different natural rhythms among its syllables and words, priming your brain to tune into this pattern could help your brain process rhythmic language better.

The researchers found that there was much better comprehension of that noisy sentence after tapping along to a medium-paced beat, which equals about two taps a second, compared to the fast, slow or no-tap primer. This was the "lexical" or word rate, similar to speech, or around 1.8 Hz.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

It’s been just over two months since Kathleen Hicks stepped down as US deputy secretary of defense. As the highest-ranking woman in Pentagon history, Hicks shaped US military posture through an era defined by renewed competition between powerful countries and a scramble to modernize defense technology.  

She’s currently taking a break before jumping into her (still unannounced) next act. “It’s been refreshing,” she says—but disconnecting isn’t easy. She continues to monitor defense developments closely and expresses concern over potential setbacks: “New administrations have new priorities, and that’s completely expected, but I do worry about just stalling out on progress that we've built over a number of administrations.”

Over the past three decades, Hicks has watched the Pentagon transform—politically, strategically, and technologically. She entered government in the 1990s at the tail end of the Cold War, when optimism and a belief in global cooperation still dominated US foreign policy. But that optimism dimmed. After 9/11, the focus shifted to counterterrorism and nonstate actors. Then came Russia’s resurgence and China’s growing assertiveness. Hicks took two previous breaks from government work—the first to complete a PhD at MIT and the second to join the think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where she focused on defense strategy. “By the time I returned in 2021,” she says, “there was one actor—the PRC (People’s Republic of China)—that had the capability and the will to really contest the international system as it’s set up.”

In this conversation with MIT Technology Review, Hicks reflects on how the Pentagon is adapting—or failing to adapt—to a new era of geopolitical competition. She discusses China’s technological rise, the future of AI in warfare, and her signature initiative, Replicator, a Pentagon initiative to rapidly field thousands of low-cost autonomous systems such as drones.

Yes, I do. China is the biggest pacing challenge we face, which means it sets the pace for most capability areas for what we need to be able to defeat to deter them. For example, surface maritime capability, missile capability, stealth fighter capability. They set their minds to achieving a certain capability, they tend to get there, and they tend to get there even faster.

That said, they have a substantial amount of corruption, and they haven’t been engaged in a real conflict or combat operation in the way that Western militaries have trained for or been involved in, and that is a huge X factor in how effective they would be.

I would never want to underestimate their ability—or any nation’s ability—to innovate organically when they put their minds to it. But I still think it’s a helpful comparison to look at the US model. Because we’re a system of free minds, free people, and free markets, we have the potential to generate much more innovation culturally and organically than a statist model does. That’s our advantage—if we can realize it.

I do think it’s a massive problem. When we were conceiving Replicator, one of the big concerns was that DJI had just jumped way out ahead on the manufacturing side, and the US had been left behind. A lot of manufacturers here believe they can catch up if given the right contracts—and I agree with that.

DJI’s commercial-use drones are affordable and powerful, but their applications in a war zone have raised concerns in the US and beyond.

taylorvich writes:

https://techxplore.com/news/2025-04-rare-crystal-strength-3d-metal.html

Andrew Iams saw something strange while looking through his electron microscope. He was examining a sliver of a new aluminum alloy at the atomic scale, searching for the key to its strength, when he noticed that the atoms were arranged in an extremely unusual pattern.

"That's when I started to get excited," said Iams, a materials research engineer, "because I thought I might be looking at a quasicrystal."

Not only did he find quasicrystals in this aluminum alloy, but he and his colleagues at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) found that these quasicrystals also make it stronger. They have published their findings in the Journal of Alloys and Compounds.

The alloy formed under the extreme conditions of 3D metal printing, a new way to make metal parts. Understanding this aluminum on the atomic scale will enable a whole new category of 3D-printed parts such as airplane components, heat exchangers and car chassis. It will also open the door to research on new aluminum alloys that use quasicrystals for strength.

Quasicrystals are like ordinary crystals but with a few key differences.

A traditional crystal is any solid made of atoms or molecules in repeating patterns. Table salt is a common crystal, for example. Salt's atoms connect to make cubes, and those microscopic cubes connect to form bigger cubes that are large enough to see with the naked eye.

There are only 230 possible ways for atoms to form repeating crystal patterns. Quasicrystals don't fit into any of them. Their unique shape lets them form a pattern that fills the space, but never repeats.

Dan Shechtman, a materials scientist at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, discovered quasicrystals while on sabbatical at NIST in the 1980s. Many scientists at the time thought his research was flawed because the new crystal shapes he found weren't possible under the normal rules for crystals. But through careful research, Shechtman proved beyond a doubt that this new type of crystal existed, revolutionizing the science of crystallography and winning the chemistry Nobel Prize in 2011.

Working in the same building as Shechtman decades later, Andrew Iams found his own quasicrystals in 3D-printed aluminum.

aliks writes:

For the first time, scientists map the half-billion connections that allow mice to see

"Writing in Scientific American in 1979, the leading biologist of his era, Francis Crick, suggested that technological innovators in neuroscience should focus on achieving attainable goals. "It is no use asking for the impossible, such as, say, the exact wiring diagram for a cubic millimeter of brain tissue and the way all its neurons are firing."

[...] "After nine years of painstaking work, an international team of researchers at Princeton have this week published a precise map of the vision centers of a mouse brain, revealing the exquisite structures and functional systems of mammalian perception.

To date, it is the largest and most detailed such rendering of neural circuits in a mammalian brain."

"In making the map, the researchers digitally disentangled tens of thousands of individual tree-like neurons, traced each neuron's distinct system of branches, and then reconstructed them one by one into a vast network of circuitry—what scientists call a "connectome."

"Princeton University's H. Sebastian Seung, the Evnin Professor in Neuroscience compared the broader impacts of a future project mapping the human connectome to the Human Genome Project's transformation of genomics.

"Of course, there are key differences between the genome and the connectome. Namely, whereas the genome can be written on a single line using sequences of a four-letter alphabet, the brain is a morass of tangled fibers that process information in real time on an extremely small energy budget. But the potential for transformation of brain science could prove to be even more breathtaking than that of genomics."

More information: The MICrONS Consortium, Functional connectomics spanning multiple areas of mouse visual cortex, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08790-w

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Commission targets in-game currency in children's video games:

The European Commission announced on Friday a new consumer protection probe into Star Stable Online, a children's video game where players explore an online world by riding horses and competing with friends in obstacle races.

However, players who spend real money gain advantages within the game. To acquire items, players – mostly children – must exchange real money for in-game currency, known as "star coins".

The European Commission, in collaboration with the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (which brings together consumer protection organisations from member states), has requested information from Swedish game developer Star Stable Entertainment AB to understand their commercial practices.

In a statement, the EU consumer protection group noted: "Consumers – especially children and teenagers who are regular video game users – remain very vulnerable to such manipulative and unfair practices," welcoming the Commission's first steps.

The company has one month to respond to the request for information.

Meanwhile, the Commission has issued guidelines on the use of in-game currency in video games, emphasising the need for clarity, respect for withdrawal rights, and avoiding pressure, particularly with vulnerable users such as children. "Children spend a lot of time online, gaming and interacting on social media. This makes them an attractive target for traders and advertisers," said Michael McGrath, Commissioner for Justice and Consumer Protection.

"It is crucial to ensure a safe online environment for consumers, particularly children, so they can enjoy gaming without facing unfair practices."

In the press release, the European Commission clarified that it will "continue to examine these topics in the context of forthcoming consultations on the Digital Fairness Act".

The Act, currently under development, aims to close gaps in existing rules. Expected in mid-2026, consultations with stakeholders will begin next spring.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Vicious cycles are accelerating climate change. One is happening at the north pole, where rising temperatures caused by record levels of fossil fuel combustion are melting more and more sea ice.

Indeed, the extent of Arctic winter sea ice in March 2025 was the lowest ever recorded. This decline in sea ice means the Earth reflects less of the sun's energy back into space. So, more climate change leads to less sea ice—and more climate change.

Human behavior is not immune to this dynamic either, according to a recent report by the International Energy Agency (IEA). It identified another troubling feedback loop: demand for coal rose 1% globally in 2024 off the back of intense heat waves in China and India, which spurred a frenzy for air-conditioners and excess fuel to power them.

The need to cool ourselves, and briefly escape the consequences of climate change, is driving more climate change. Thankfully, there are ways to break these cycles and form greener habits. Today, we'll look at one in particular.

[...] If wealthy countries paid the enormous climate finance debt they owe the developing world, it could help finance the closing of this gap. And thankfully, advancements in renewable energy technology mean no one should need to contribute to a spike in fossil fuel use just to keep cool.

"The absurdity of resorting to coal to power air conditioners … is difficult to miss," say a team of engineers and energy experts at Nottingham Trent University and Coventry University, led by Tom Rogers. They recommend rooftop solar panels instead, which can soak up sunshine during heat waves and turn it into electricity for air-conditioning units.

"Rooftop solar can also reduce demand for cooling by keeping buildings in the shade," the team say. "A study conducted by Arizona State University found that even a modest group of solar panels that shade about half a roof can lead to anything from 2% to 13% reduction in cooling demand, depending on factors such as location, roof type and insulation levels."