Submission + - Welcome Silona Bonewald, new MetaBrainz Foundation Executive Director! (metabrainz.org)

Submitted by aerozol
aerozol writes: The MetaBrainz Foundation, the non-profit that believes in free open access to data, founded in 2004 by Robert Kaye, has appointed Open Source Standards pioneer Silona Bonewald to the position of Executive Director with immediate effect.

Following Robert Kaye’s untimely passing at the beginning of the year, the MetaBrainz Foundation has been managed by the Board of Directors and acting Executive Director Nicolás Tamargo in the interim.

Robert’s clear vision and leadership shaped MetaBrainz and contributed significantly to the music and metadata industries, specifically by creating the MBID’s, a de facto unambiguous lingua franca for music data.

Bonewald brings more than three decades of experience building open communities, open-source infrastructure, and nonprofit organisations at global scale. She is known for coining the term “citability” in 2004 — describing the challenge of making digital information verifiable and attributable at scale.

“Robert Kaye and the MetaBrainz community spent twenty-two years building and proving the immense value of an open record of cultural knowledge and heritage,” said Bonewald.

“I’m honoured to help carry this community’s ideals forward: making metadata reusable, interoperable, available, and community curated.”

Bonewald most recently served as Executive Director of IEEE SA Open where she launched the standards association’s first cloud-based open-source platform, and as Vice President of Community Architecture at Hyperledger, part of the Linux Foundation.

In the nonprofit sector, Bonewald founded the League of Technical Voters and has advised open-source organisations such as the Software Freedom Conservancy and served on the board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Austin chapter.

“The MetaBrainz projects, of which MusicBrainz is the most well-known, exist so that artists and fans can find each other without needing a commercial platform’s permission.” says Matthew Hawn, Director, MetaBrainz Foundation.

“The data in a commercial platform is held captive inside streaming services and social platforms, and AI is only accentuating the silos.”

“Silona brings thirty years of building open infrastructure that people can trust and the board is delighted she is taking this on.”

Submission + - The Hidden Technology That Could Be Affected by Bumper Damage (dev.to)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: You reverse into a low post at the shops and hear that unmistakable crunch. When you get out, the damage does not look terrible. There is a scrape across the bumper, one corner has moved slightly and perhaps there is a small dent. The car still drives normally, so booking a repair can feel like something that can wait.

On many newer vehicles, though, a bumper is no longer simply a painted panel protecting the front or rear of the car. Cameras, parking sensors and other driver assistance components may be fitted in or around the bumper area. Even relatively modest accident damage can affect their position or operation.

That is why the size of the dent does not always tell you the full story.
https://dev.to/markandresonnn/...

#panelbeatersHoppersCrossing #accidentrepairGeelong #accidentrepair #MelbourneCollisionRepairCentre

Submission + - Pete Hegseth pushes the U.S. military to go "all in" on AI

Submitted by Nicholas Grayhame
Nicholas Grayhame writes: From Bloomberg's article on the attack in Minab, Iran that killed 150 civilians, including at least 123 children, on February 28, the first day of the Iran war:

"... Inside Centcom, which conducted the US attack, some personnel relied too much on the artificial intelligence embedded in Maven Smart System, the officials [involved in the Pentagon's internal investigation of the incident] said. Maven, which is made by Palantir Technologies Inc., allows users to view and coordinate complex military operations — from targeting to command and control — using AI-enabled software that fuses more than 150 different data inputs into a coherent set of information to inform commanders’ decisions.

In the past year, the Defense Department has rapidly made Maven a cornerstone of the US military apparatus. Several former senior US military officials now work for Palantir, including some with high-level security clearances in Centcom’s Tampa headquarters. Their role is to keep the software functioning inside secure military environments.

Some Centcom personnel expected Maven to flag stale information or inconsistencies in the underlying intelligence assembled for potential targets, the officials said. It’s not clear why they had such expectations. ...

... On March 12, more than 120 Democrats in the US House wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asking about the Minab school strike and the role that artificial intelligence, including Maven Smart System, played in identifying the site as a target. The Pentagon hasn’t responded publicly to such questions, citing the ongoing investigation.

Some of Hegseth’s advisers have expressed concern that political scrutiny of Maven could disrupt the benefits they anticipate from its further adoption, according to officials involved in the probe. ...

Submission + - No Warrant, No Suspicion, No Problem (reason.com)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: Part of the bedrock of American civil liberties is the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches. There is no right to privacy, and no due process in the justice system, without that. But immigration authorities, cops, and courts keep deciding that, for some reason, the Fourth Amendment just doesn't apply where new technology is concerned.

Submission + - Why Trump May Not Serve Out His Presidency (newrepublic.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In 2024, a group of 225 mental health professionals said in a published open letter (bankrolled, granted, by an anti-Trump PAC created by George Conway) that Trump suffered from “malignant narcissism” and appeared “to be showing signs of cognitive decline,” including “a dramatic decline in verbal fluency, tangential thinking, diminished vocabulary, overuse of superlatives and filler words,” and to be “exhibiting deteriorating judgment, impulse control, and motor functioning (including a wide-based gait).”

Submission + - Students are suddenly losing interest in computer science as AI coding takes off (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: For years, students were told that learning to code was one of the safest paths into a lucrative technology career. New data suggests that message may be losing some of its pull. Nova Learning says the share of surveyed middle and high school students naming Computer Science and AI as their primary academic interest fell from 42.3 percent in 2025 to 27.9 percent in 2026, while Engineering rose from 11.9 percent to 23 percent. The biggest gains came from Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, while Software and Data Science saw a steep drop.

The survey is not nationally representative, but broader enrollment data points in the same direction. The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reported declines in Computer and Information Science enrollment at four year institutions, even as Engineering grew. AI coding tools are not proven to be the cause, but as software development changes and AI handles more coding tasks, students may be starting to rethink what a future in technology should look like.

Submission + - New tin-based solar cells trap heat 1,000 times longer, could beat 33% limit. (interestingengineering.com)

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: Interesting Engineering is reporting that researchers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands found that tin-based perovskite solar cells can slow heat loss from high-energy “hot electrons” by a factor of 1,000 and could push solar cell efficiency beyond the theoretical 33 percent limit.

When sunlight strikes a panel, photons jump-start electrons into action. The most energetic photons create super-charged hot electrons. Theoretically, these high-voltage powerhouses should generate far more electricity, but, in practice, they are fleeting. In fractions of a trillionth of a second, these high-energy particles rapidly cool, dumping their bonus energy as waste heat before ever leaving the solar cell.

“This means that the energy is lost before the hot electron exits the solar cell material,” said Jan Anton Koster, Professor of Physics of Novel Semiconductors and Devices at the University of Groningen.

Using a specialized solar cell material called tin-based perovskite, Loi’s lab performed a feat many thought impossible: she slowed the heat loss down by a factor of 1,000. Suddenly, the extra energy lingered for nanoseconds instead of vanishing in picoseconds.

The study findings were published in the journal ACS Energy Letters.

Submission + - Google fined more than €400m by Irish regulator over its use of location da (theguardian.com)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: Google has been fined more than €400m (£345m) over the way it processed users’ location data, following claims that the tech giant had manipulated users into agreeing to be constantly tracked on their mobile phones. The fine, imposed by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), comes after complaints from multiple European consumer organisations that Google was following every step users took.

The DPC launched its inquiry six years ago and set out to find out whether Google had a valid legal basis for its use of location data. It found that Google users could have been unaware that their location was being used to influence them with adverts or to gather details about their health and interests.

Submission + - NFL implements stricter rules for images displayed on stadium video boards (yahoo.com)

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: NFL teams are now restricted on what can be shown on stadium video boards during field-goal and extra-point attempts, per a directive from the league issued prior to the beginning of the 2026-27 season.

Teams must display a static image or a standard wide-angle, All-22 view on the jumbo-sized screens behind the end zone as kicks are taking place, the NFL mandated in a memo sent to each organization, according to ESPN.

NFL rules have always mandated that moving, flashing, blinking images and texts could not be shown on video boards during field-goal and extra-point tries. To prevent undue distractions or unfair advantages to home teams, only static images could be displayed on video boards.

However, those rules have been modified to more closely restrict even images that aren't moving on the screen, ESPN's Mike Reiss and Adam Schefter reported. The stricter regulations were implemented in response to a social-media post by a former NFL analytics coach that pointed out images displayed by the New England Patriots on the Gillette Stadium video board that presented an optical illusion to opposing place-kickers.

Submission + - Bill Gates Gives Governors $650K to 'Guide K-12 Education Policy Related to AI'

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Among the latest round of grants from the [Bill] Gates Foundation is one for $650,000 to the National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices, the stated purpose of which is "to equip governors with knowledge and resources to guide K-12 education policy related to artificial intelligence."

The grant aligns nicely with the Gates Foundation's Monday announcement that it is betting big on AI to boost global health, agriculture and education, starting with a $1 billion "down payment", 40% of which is earmarked for education. It also comes amid a pushback against the use of AI in K-12 in schools, including moratoriums on K-12 generative AI use in the nation's two largest cities, New York City and Los Angeles.

If Gates' push for the nation's Governors to drive K-12 AI policy seems a bit familiar, it may be because Bill Gates was among the so-called CEOS for CS, a who's who of tech leaders whose Code.org-organized PR campaign led to the nation's Governors signing of a compact committing to expand K-12 CS education (including a CS graduation requirement) in their states at the NGA's Summer 2022 Meeting. Ironically, the massive post-COVID tech company layoffs soon followed and after that came the job-disrupting breakout of generative AI, which prompted the tech-backed nonprofit Code.org (who subsequently rebranded as CodeAI) to round up 250+ CEOs for another PR campaign in 2025, this time calling upon state education leaders and policymakers to pivot and further commit to making AI education available for every student as part of a push for 'policy solutions that ensure every student has access to the foundational skills needed to succeed in a world enabled by AI.'

As Yogi Berra might say, "It's déjà vu all over again!"

Submission + - Trump says Arch will be a military complex with weapons, drones, sniper's nest (theguardian.com)

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: The Guardian is reporting, along with others, that President Donald Trump is proferring a new argument for building his triumphal arch in Washington DC: it will be converted into a “top grade military complex” replete with drone and ammunition storage space and customized sniper facilities on the roof and plaza.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday morning, Trump claimed that his new plan came at the “strong request” of the US military. He said the 250ft structure would be able to “house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large quantities of sniper ammunition in storage”. The president added, “There will be no facility like this anywhere in the world.”

This seems like a ploy to get around courts holding up the project by re-framing the project as a National Security matter, as he did with the East Wing of the White House. (Can the Kennedy Center be far behind?)

Submission + - America PAC's VoteSafe.org is nothing but a honeypot (cybernews.com)

Submitted by echo123
echo123 writes: Elon Musk’s bogus voter registration website is collecting extensive user data and selling it.

The website was funded by Musk and is operated by America PAC, a conservative political action committee founded in 2024 to support Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

The VoteSafe.org website has been promoted as a way for Americans to register to vote and check their registration ahead of the November midterm elections.

But MeidasTouch and Snopes found that despite presenting itself as a voter-registration resource, the site doesn’t actually register users to vote.

The site's privacy policy says America PAC can collect information, including:

        Users' names
        Dates of birth
        Addresses
        Email addresses
        Phone numbers
        IP addresses
        Location
        Information about how they interact with the site

It also permits the collection of "inferences" about users, including their preferences, characteristics, behavior, attitudes, and psychological tendencies.

The policy says the information may be shared with or sold to business partners for targeted marketing.
 

Submission + - The brain is actually two completely separate organs (stanford.edu)

Submitted by Beeftopia
Beeftopia writes: From Stanford Medicine:

"For centuries, scientists have thought of the brain as a single, unified organ. But new research led by Stanford Medicine reveals that what we call the brain is two distinct organs that evolved independently over hundreds of millions of years."

The adult brain has three main regions: the forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain. Scientists could never create hindbrain neurons.

"Previous attempts to make hindbrain neurons likely tried to coax forebrain and midbrain progenitors into hindbrain cells, which our study shows is not possible,” said researcher Rayyan Jokhai.

"The researchers’ breakthrough came from studying the earliest moments of embryonic development, during a stage called gastrulation when the body first takes shape. Jokhai and Dundes discovered that the hindbrain follows a separate developmental path, running in parallel to — rather than branching off from — the pathway that creates the forebrain and midbrain."

With this knowledge, researchers were able to create hindbrain neurons.

Submission + - Why have Slashdot stories slowed to a crawl? 1

Submitted by zamboni1138
zamboni1138 writes: You're been an avid Slashdot reader for years, so have I. Why, over the last however many months, has Slashdot story publication slowed to a new low. Weekdays, maybe eight stories, weekends, maybe two or three. We already know the editors are not the brightest bunch, posting dupes, slashvertisements, etc. But is there something deeper going on? Inquiring minds want to know.

Submission + - FCC lets Paramount sell 49.5% equity stake to foreign powers (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Local ID10T
Local ID10T writes: The Federal Communications Commission yesterday approved Paramount Skydance's plan to sell large equity stakes to the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.

Under US law, companies with licenses to run broadcast stations need FCC approval to have direct or indirect foreign ownership exceeding 25 percent of the company's stock. Paramount says its indirect foreign ownership will reach 49.5 percent after it receives investments from the sovereign wealth funds and filed a petition asking the FCC to waive the foreign ownership limit.

Paramount, the owner of CBS, holds FCC licenses for the 28 local CBS stations that it owns and operates. Paramount is buying Warner Bros. Discovery in a $111 billion deal that is being partially financed with foreign investment but hasn't completed the acquisition because US states filed a lawsuit that aims to block the merger. Trump's Department of Justice approved the merger.

The FCC is letting Paramount sell indirect ownership stakes to "some of the most repressive governments in the world," FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the only Democrat on the commission, said yesterday. "An investment this large in one of America's biggest media companies doesn't just buy equity, it secures influence over what gets said and what gets made."

Submission + - Fruit fly beats advanced AI at chess in just 11 moves (nypost.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: The lowly fruit fly just beat one of the worldâ(TM)s most advanced AI models at chess.

Thatâ(TM)s just one of dozens of wild experiments that have gone viral since scientists fully mapped the neural pathways of an adult male fruit fly â" whose entire brain fits on the head of a pin â" and posted the data online.

The threshold-crossing technology, achieved by HHMI Janelia Research in Virginia and Google Research, catalogued all 166,000 individual neurons and 25.6 million connections in the flyâ(TM)s brain and made it downloadable on Sept 3.

Inventive nerds then used the digitized neural network to power and navigate a wide variety of contraptions, apps and games.

Creator Maxime Labonne hooked the mapped pathways up to a chess engine and pitted it against Claude Opus 5, which is one of the most advanced AI models on the market.

The fly delivered a checkmate in just 11 moves.

Submission + - Upgrading a 29y old debian install from spinning rust to rPi5 and N355 mini PC

Submitted by marcmerlin
marcmerlin writes: If you are interested in the story of upgrading a 28 year old debian install with raids of spinning rust drives from 2TB with 26 SCSI SCA drives to 60TB of SATA spinning rust to 18 4TB SSDs to save power and move off randomly failing drives, this first upgrade story shows a failed attempt with a raspberry pi5 which could not sustain a 4way M2 PCI splitter and 18 SSDs: https://marc.merlins.org/perso...

But this second attempt with a 4 M2 NVME CWWK N355 mini server, worked. Amazing how small those servers are now and what they can do with barely more power use: https://marc.merlins.org/perso...

Also, hat to debian for having allowed me to run the same Linux install for 29 years without any re-install

Submission + - Major Media Outlets Banned from White House (bbc.com)

Submitted by hadleyburg
hadleyburg writes: BBC is reporting that "US President Donald Trump has announced that he is "immediately" banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House".

"Trump said that the outlets "constantly write or report fiction or lies" about his administration, although he provided no examples".

Submission + - Chinese Scientists Say They've Detected A Quantum State Inside Living Cells (sciencealert.com) 2

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: In experiments involving living cells, mouse tissues, and isolated mitochondria, the team detected an unusual vibration that appeared only while mitochondrial structures remained intact.

A model linked the vibration to a possible quantum interaction. When researchers illuminated cells with selected infrared frequencies, the cells produced 10 percent more ATP.

Together, the results suggest mitochondria may contain a quantum state that influences cellular energy production.

Slashdot Top Deals