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"Arthur T Knackerbracket" writes:

"Beijing's intended strategy is to dominate the high ground of the twenty-first century":

In a forthcoming memoir, former US politician and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson offers a blistering assessment of China, saying the United States must do all it can to retain its leadership in space exploration.

"Beijing's intended strategy is to dominate the high ground of the twenty-first century," writes Nelson in Space Odyssey, a book to be published by Harper Horizon in January 2027.

A former Congressman and Senator from Florida, Nelson served as a mission specialist on a space shuttle flight in 1986 and later as NASA administrator from May 2021 to January 2025 under President Biden. The book largely focuses on his space policy work in Congress and his tenure as NASA's leader.

[...] Nelson has long been wary of China as a threat to the United States, noting his concerns about technology theft from the West. Unlike his predecessor under a Democratic president—former astronaut Charlie Bolden, who served as NASA leader under President Obama—Nelson supported the Wolf Amendment, which strictly limits cooperation between NASA and China's space program.

The reason, Nelson says, is that China's space program is militarized and highly secretive.

"China is not a partner to be trusted," he writes. "Partnership requires trust, and trust is founded on transparency. With China, despite repeated efforts to build verifiable, rules-based cooperation and set commonsense guard rails for engagement, there has never been much of either."

The flashpoint of the near future is the Moon, where both NASA and China are in a contest to not just land humans but also establish a long-term settlement. As for how this competition is going, Nelson writes, "America is not the obvious favorite."

"Arthur T Knackerbracket" writes:

First LLM to pass test did it in a parking lot at snail's pace, at considerable expense, but it still counts for something:

If you've ever wondered whether a generative AI model can drive a car, wonder no more: It can be done, at great expense and very slowly, so long as it can maintain an internet connection.

A trio of computer scientists has been putting various commercial AI models through road tests, to see how well they can drive a Toyota Corolla around a set of cones in a parking lot.

Their attempts to date, part of a project called DrivingBench, recorded sorry performances from GPT-5.6 Sol, Grok 4.6, and Claude Fable 5.1, none of which managed to complete the course.

Now comes word that OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra has succeeded where other commercial AI models have failed. On its second attempt, OpenAI's flagship model steered a car all of 134.7 meters to complete the course in 5 minutes, 22 seconds.

"GPT-6 Astra was the only model to fully complete the course (on attempt 2, in about 5 minutes)," the DrivingBench report says. "Claude Fable 5.1's third attempt got around halfway through the course, as did Astra's first attempt. All other attempts didn't make it past the first corner. Generally, the failure there was one of perception: reading which side of the first diagonal cone line the lane is on."

To complete that trip at an average speed of 0.94 miles per hour, researchers Tobias Gessler, Aditya Ramabadran, and Simon Mahns spent $7.74 to burn 6.6 million tokens on inferencing operations. 

"Arthur T Knackerbracket" writes:

XV Excalibur hailed as first US or UK underwater drone to let one off in tests:

A British uncrewed submarine has test-fired a torpedo for the first time, demonstrating the ability of undersea drones to attack targets as well as perform reconnaissance and surveillance roles.

The XV Excalibur, a 12 meter (40 ft) experimental uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV), was unveiled last year as the Royal Navy's first large submarine drone as part of Project CETUS.

According to the Prime Minister's Office, the test firing was part of the AUKUS program, a trilateral security partnership between Australia, the UK and America. It involved the Excalibur launching a heavyweight torpedo "jointly developed by the US and Australia," which implies it was the Mk 48 torpedo currently carried by all US Navy submarines.

Also according to Downing Street, this was the first time either the US or UK has launched a torpedo from an underwater drone, rather than a crewed submarine.

The Register understands that  Excalibur navigated autonomously to its launch position and carried out a pre-programmed launch sequence, but was not responsible for detecting or tracking the target, as target data was provided through external systems.

As noted by defense site Navy Lookout, the Excalibur has no torpedo tubes, and its payload bay in the midships section of the hull is too small to accommodate a large torpedo, so it is possible the weapon was carried via some sort of cradle attached to the underside of the sub.

[...] While Excalibur is currently an experimental vehicle, it is expected to inform requirements for future UUVs that the Royal Navy wants to help patrol the North Atlantic and protect against expected Russian sabotage of undersea cables and other infrastructure in the event of hostilities breaking out.

The Excalibur tests come as UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham is expected to confirm the UK and US are working together in an AI and Autonomy partnership. This - so we are told - will help Britain protect critical national infrastructure, from sea lanes to air space, providing the means to detect threats and deter adversaries using the latest AI technology developed on both sides of the Atlantic.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

The malware pretends to be a legitimate download for an app like Google Chrome:

There’s a frightening new digital threat that Android users should be aware of. New AI-powered malware called RatHat can automatically gain admin-level control over your Android device, stealing whatever it wants.

RatHat was discovered by mobile security firm Zimperium, which notes that the program tricks people into downloading what appears to be a legitimate app, such as Google Chrome, via a fake web page that mimics the Google Play Store. Once opened, the app seemingly innocently asks for accessibility permissions, which it then uses to take over your entire device. 

RatHat uses the accessibility permissions users grant it to navigate your phone's menu system and unlock Wireless Debugging, a legitimate developer tool commonly used in app testing, then grants itself ADB Shell permissions. This effectively grants the malware admin access to your device. Next, RatHat installs an AI-assisted agent that runs system commands to steal information and a proxy client that tunnels that stolen information back to the hacker. 

"That sort of infection chain isn't necessarily more complex than, say, following a phishing email on Windows and saying yes when the program asks for administrator permissions," Sav Wheeler, a research engineer for Malwarebytes, said in an email. "Escalation in the Android landscape often relies on granting apps additional permissions that the OS locks away by default to keep the devices secure."

Per Zimperium, the malware can be traced to attackers in China and primarily targets apps like WeChat Pay and Alipay, which are as popular in China as Apple Pay and Venmo are in the US. Malwarebytes notes that other financial apps can also be targeted. So far, researchers have found 162 infected apps in the wild, which report back to a dozen servers run by attackers. 

The worrisome part is that the malware doesn't do anything wonky the user would notice immediately, unlike with a ransomware attack. Instead, it bides its time, runs in the background, and captures information that appears on the screen, including usernames, passwords and two-factor authentication codes. 

It can also steal raw touch input from your touchscreen, allowing it to recreate PIN codes and pattern unlock codes. It can capture SMS messages, too, thereby intercepting security codes. There isn't much that the app can't steal if it wants to.

Most folks are likely to never run into RatHat. You have to sideload a malicious app to do this, and so sticking to the Play Store prevents this entire problem.

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

Schrems campaign raises specter of another legal challenge as legislators propose changes to GDPR:

The campaign group which forced the EU's highest court to strike down past US-EU data sharing deals has slammed the latest changes to European data protection laws designed to accommodate AI.

Led by Austrian lawyer Max Schrems, None of Your Business (noyb) claims the proposal to alter the data protection legislation "in the context of AI" amounts to an abandonment of data protection principles.

In September, the Commission said it would launch an "ambitious program" to strengthen the EU's competitiveness and "radically lighten the regulatory load for people, businesses and administrations." It proposed "immediate adjustments" to digital legislation to the boost competitiveness.

Earlier, the EU had proposed changes in the legislation governing the processing of personal data, governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

"Where the processing of personal data is necessary for the interests of the controller in the context of the development and technical operation of an AI system ... or an AI model, such processing may be pursued for legitimate interests," a briefing note said.

Noyb argues the amendments to Article 88c (original here) proposed by the European Commission (a leaked EU Council compromise draft renames it as article 88bis) would allow Big Tech to use all personal data collected over the past decades with virtually no restrictions, as long as this happens "in the context" of AI.

Schrems said: "Under these proposals, the profits of AI companies would trump Europeans' fundamental right to privacy. This is nothing but a digital expropriation of Europeans."

"Arthur T Knackerbracket" writes:

https://www.theregister.com/systems/2026/09/23/europes-fastest-supercomputer-is-finally-getting-its-domestic-silicon-infusion/5298665

Talk about digital sovereignty! Europe's most powerful supercomputer, Jupiter, is finally getting the domestic silicon infusion it's been waiting for.

On Tuesday, French chip designer SiPearl began delivery of its long-anticipated Rhea1 CPUs to Bull for integration into the system.

Jupiter, which came online last year, became the European Union's first exascale supercomputer. It currently holds the designation of being the fifth most powerful system on the Top500 ranking of publicly known supercomputers.

But that feat wasn't achieved using European silicon. The Jupiter Booster, which set the EU record, was powered by 24,000 American-made GH200 superchips from GPU giant Nvidia. These high-end accelerators were the precursor to the Grace Blackwell superchips used in its AI rack systems and featured a single Grace CPU and H200 GPU.

However, the Booster section is only part of the larger Jupiter system. SiPearl's chips will power a second CPU-only partition.

Rhea1 has been under development for several years and marks a turning point for sovereign supercomputing.

Based on Arm's Neoverse V1 core designs, the chip is already showing its age. Even the Grace CPUs powering the booster section use Arm's newer V2 cores. Yet, the Rhea1 is still notable.

With 61 billion transistors, the 80-core chip was designed specifically for running HPC and scientific workloads not well suited to GPUs.

In many respects, the chip is reminiscent of the Fujitsu A64FX CPUs that propelled Japan's Fugaku supercomputer to the number one spot on the Top500 back in early 2020.

Each Rhea1 processor is equipped with four stacks of HBM2e totaling 64 GB and achieving 1.8 TB/s of bandwidth. Along with the HBM, each Rhea1 CPU has four DDR5 memory channels.

"Arthur T Knackerbracket" writes:

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/the-faa-is-testing-an-ai-powered-air-traffic-management-tool/

For years, there have been shortages of air traffic control personnel, leading to delays and congestion. To remedy these troubles, the Federal Aviation Administration and the US Department of Transportation are turning to a new tool: AI.

On Monday, these agencies announced that they’re beginning a trial of the new system, called Strategic Management of Airspace Routes and Trajectories, at three airports around the nation's capital – Reagan National Airport, Dulles International Airport and BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport.

This $875 million software overhaul is not a replacement for human air traffic control operators, the DOT said, but is intended to reduce pressure on personnel by predicting delays and cancellations, and providing recommendations to the humans who retain control over flight operations.

Margaret Wallace, an assistant professor of aviation management at the Florida Institute of Technology, said meaningful action is necessary to address the aging air traffic control infrastructure, and calls to modernize the system have been ongoing – yet unanswered – for years.

While SMART is an important first step, she says, it "does not eliminate the human element," and controllers need to remain at the forefront of every stage of implementation.

"If implemented carefully, however, the technology behind this initiative has the potential to begin a significant transformation in the efficiency and modernization of the US air traffic system," Wallace said in an email.

It may be alarming to read "artificial intelligence" and "air traffic management" in the same sentence. So let's unpack what this system actually is before deciding to never get on another flight again.

Each day, the FAA manages close to 45,000 flights in the US. Even slight delays, changes in weather conditions, and reroutes can lead to airspace congestion and overcapacity. SMART was designed to centralize 200 data streams of flight paths, wind, weather, staffing metrics and more into one platform for a comprehensive overview of what's happening in the sky and on the ground at airports for better management of these flights.

From this consolidated data, human controllers can "anticipate demand, weather and airspace constraints and plan hours, days and even weeks ahead," according to the press release.

The US DOT says these measures are to upgrade "the FAA from a reactive approach to a predictive one."

“By fundamentally reshaping how we manage our airspace and preventing problems before they happen, SMART will slash those frustrating delays, reduce stress on air traffic controllers and lower travel prices,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement.

Source: BBC Television.

The UK Police have announced that all 5 men arrested in connection with the suspected terrorist attack attempt at RAF Fairford are UK nationals in their 20s from the London area.

For previous reporting see: https://soylentnews.org/breakingnews/article.pl?sid=26/09/27/115249

The Head of Counter Terrorism Police (CTP) has given an public announcement at 15:45 BST:

The 5 individuals who have been arrested are being released on police bail with significant restrictions on who they may contact, on reporting regularly and movement. They remain under investigation.

They are currently being released while remaining under charges relating to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE). No mention was made relating to earlier charges.

The CTP have numerous new leads that they are following. They are keeping an open mind about who might ultimately be behind the attempt. They stress that it must be remembered that individuals may be used as proxies without necessarily knowing who is directing the attempt, or even knowing that they were being manipulated.

The alert states at both Fairford and Lakenheath remain as previously announced.

The Head of CTP stated that the alert was raised by 2 phone calls made by civilians. Nothing was said about any prior intelligence.

The latest statement by the CTP (19:25BST 29 Sep 2026):

No explosives were found in the vehicles used by the 5 men arrested near RAF Fairford. A quantity of vehicle fuel was found. Searches of the homes of the 5 men have not revealed anything significant to the investigation.

Without any further evidence the individuals were released on bail. The decision was based on insufficient evidence to justify holding the 5 offenders longer although they could always be re-arrested if it is subsequently justified, and 'strategic' considerations. The investigation is continuing with close liaison between the relevant security agencies in the UK, and with the US.

hubie writes:

Moon's water reserves insufficient to sustain a lunar city, astronomers find:

Some countries and even wealthy individuals are setting their sights on the Moon, with ambitious plans to create a lunar colony.

That would require a lot of resources launched from Earth, but how much water and power would be required to keep a lunar city going?

Astronomers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory have now taken a look at the resources required for several population sizes.

When it comes to power, the pair think it should be possible to generate sufficient energy even for a large city and without the need for nuclear power.

They estimate it would be possible to generate 3 GW of electricity using kilometre-tall towers covered with photovoltaic arrays. Not only that but it would be possible to manufacture solar panels on the Moon given the amount of silicon on the surface.

Yet it is not good news when it comes to water consumption. We have known for well over a decade that the Moon's poles contain water ice, possibly as much as a billion tonnes, with Moon-orbiting craft mapping out likely locations in great detail.

Even assuming one billion tonnes of water on the Moon, if nothing was recycled then a city of a million would last only a few years, while a population of 100,000 would run for 20 years before running dry.

Even when recycling the water with an efficiency of 98% – as performed on the International Space Station – a city of a million would only have enough water for around a century.

The authors say that to sustain a lunar city of that size would require improving water-recycling efficiencies beyond 99.5%, reducing water usage through vertical farming or simply finding more water on the Moon.

So for now it sounds like a Moon village may be the only possibility. The authors state that a town of around 10,000 people, for example, may be sustainable for several centuries.

Journal Reference: https://doi.org/10.3389/frspt.2026.1894104

Original Submission

owl writes:

https://www.righto.com/2026/09/8087-tangent-cordic.html

I hope you're not tired of the 8087, because I have another article about Intel's floating-point chip.1 In 1980, Intel introduced the 8087, making floating-point operations much faster in the IBM PC and other systems. In this article, I look at the algorithm behind the chip's tangent instruction. One popular approach for trigonometric functions is an algorithm called CORDIC. Another approach is a polynomial approximation. The 8087 combined the two to obtain both high accuracy and high performance. The 8087 provided an enormous speedup over the 8086 microprocessor, computing a tangent in 90 microseconds rather than 13,000 microseconds.2

By examining the circuitry and microcode of the 8087, I can explain the algorithm behind the tangent instruction, called FPTAN. To explore the 8087's circuitry, I popped the lid off a chip with a chisel and created a high-resolution image with a microscope.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Experts have warned of the hidden health risks associated with the unregulated global trade of mummified remains:

A new study, led by University of Staffordshire, has found evidence of potentially hazardous microbial growth on mummified human and animal remains advertised for sale online – posing risks to both sellers and buyers.

The analysis of 128 online posts and auction listings also highlighted non-compliance with postal regulations, potentially putting delivery workers, customs officials and other members of the public at risk.

Isolated human body parts, including hands and feet, were the most frequently listed items, while more than half of the sample involved heads in varying states of completeness and preservation.

Sellers were found to provide little information about the safe handling of remains, while some posts showed people handling mummified human remains without gloves.

Although not all items in the study had visible signs of possible fungal growth or extensive deterioration, the researchers warn that microbial colonisation may not always be visible, meaning apparently well-preserved remains can still present potential risks.

Lead author Dr Kirsty Squires, Professor of Human Bioarchaeology at University of Staffordshire, conducted the research with international colleagues from Vilnius University, the University of Salento, the University of Messina, and Adelaide University.

"The rise of the internet, especially social media, has amplified international trafficking and driven demand for unique cultural heritage, including mummified humans and animals," she explained.

"However, these preserved remains pose health and biosecurity risks, due to the toxicity of embalming methods and/or suboptimal storage that can promote microbial growth.

Our research revealed that mummified remains sold online exhibit signs of biodeterioration, yet sellers provide no safety guidance, suggesting limited awareness or deliberate disregard of hazards.

"There is also evidence to show that mummified remains are being mailed to buyers, both nationally and internationally, with little (if any) consideration of the health and safety implications of these actions. Clearer, more prominent guidelines are needed to ensure buyers and sellers are unable to misinterpret or find loopholes in shipping policies."

"Arthur T Knackerbracket" writes:

Pew finds growing concern over their effects on energy bills, the environment, and nearby communities:

Americans are growing more and more wary of datacenters, with a Pew Research Center survey finding sharp rises since January in those who view the effect on the environment, energy bills, and nearby communities negatively.

Pew surveyed 10,548 US adults between July 20 and August 9. Fifty-four percent said datacenters were mostly bad for the environment, up from 39 percent in January. Half said they were mostly bad for household energy costs, up from 38 percent, while 49 percent viewed them negatively for the quality of life of nearby residents, up from 30 percent.

In each category, only 4 percent described their impact as mostly good. Views were more evenly divided on local employment and tax revenue, while 12 percent of respondents said they had not heard of datacenters.

The shift spans demographic groups: men and women, adults of every age and education level, and urban, suburban, and rural residents have all grown more negative since the start of the year.

The movement also crosses party lines. Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents remain more negative than Republicans and Republican leaners, but among the latter group, 42 percent now say datacenters are mostly bad for nearby residents' quality of life, up from 24 percent in January.

The research comes amid growing scrutiny of datacenters' electricity and water consumption and their effects on household utility bills.

The Register has reported on US senators investigating rising energy bills, gaps in operators' disclosure of emissions, and allegations that compute sheds consume more water than their owners acknowledge.

Amazon's chief sustainability officer this week said communities should hold the company accountable over datacenters and called for greater transparency about their effects.

The industry has long recognized its image problem. At last year's Datacloud Global Congress, executives discussed ways to win over communities increasingly wary of new facilities.

Republican officials have taken differing positions. Trump has consistently supported datacenter construction, arguing that it is needed to help the US compete with China, while Texas Governor Greg Abbott imposed a statewide moratorium in August after previously backing expansion. Trump has also blamed opposition to datacenters on Chinese propaganda.

Whatever the cause, 60 percent of respondents said they would be not too or not at all comfortable with a new datacenter operating nearby. Majorities of urban, suburban, and rural Americans agreed.

Original Submission

"Arthur T Knackerbracket" writes:

Discord will try to automatically estimate ages, require verification when it can't:

Discord today [Sept. 23] is rolling out an age-verification system that estimates each user's age and requires some users to prove they are old enough to access age-restricted content. Discord said it will take a few days for the global system to reach all user accounts.

Discord had announced a somewhat different plan for age checks in February, but scrapped it amid backlash from users concerned about privacy. The privacy concerns were heightened by a 2025 incident in which hackers stole government IDs of 70,000 Discord users from a third-party service that Discord used to verify ages in the UK and Australia.

The original plan was to require ID uploads or face scans from users seeking to access age-restricted servers and channels. The revised system, detailed yesterday by Discord CTO and co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy, will provide several additional options.

"In February, the only methods we'd planned for to confirm your age were facial age estimation or an ID scan. Based on your feedback, we committed to giving you more options that meet our high privacy standards," Vishnevskiy wrote.

A Discord system will automatically estimate user ages and place each user into an adult age group (18+), a teen group (13-17), or an "unconfirmed" group for which there isn't enough data to determine whether a person is an adult or teen.

[...] Discord estimates that more than 90 percent of users will not be asked to confirm their age. Adults who want to access age-restricted content, but are incorrectly placed in the 13-17 age group or put into "unconfirmed," will have several options to prove they are old enough.

"Arthur T Knackerbracket" writes:

Someday, AI agents will buy you anything you want — or what they think you want:

The keynote kicking off Snapdragon Summit 2026 in Maui had the latest forecast for how AI agents will organize our lives through the phones in our pockets. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon spent some time walking viewers through how the agents will buy things for them, preparing for the day when AI will have access to our bank accounts or credit cards — and why that’s a good idea.

For years, Qualcomm has pitched a future where AI agents on your devices know your habits and preferences well enough to make informed decisions on your behalf. Eventually, this will include the capability to spend your money on things such as necessities, gifts and travel. The question is how agents will decide whether or not to pull the trigger on a purchase — and how much input you’ll have on what decisions they make.

Nobody’s figured this out yet, and might not for some time. The fear is that an AI agent would run off with your bank account numbers, clear out your savings and run up your credit card. But at this year’s summit, Qualcomm suggested how this might actually work, wherein agents would repeatedly check in before they spend your money.

“When an agent is acting as a proxy of you, you need to trust the agent, and you need to trust the device, especially for something like shopping,” Amon said on the keynote stage. 

Naturally, the CEO was pitching a method with his company’s technology at the center, but it was at least sensitive to the uncertainties people likely have about an AI buying things for them. He said that the company is developing technologies to protect personal information and provide a secure device environment.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/27/uk/fairford-arrests-uk-raf-us-intl

UK counter-terrorism police are leading an investigation after several men were arrested on suspicion of explosives offenses near an air base used by US forces.

A number of properties were evacuated in the Whelford area in the county of Gloucestershire "following the declaration of a major incident," a police statement said.

"The Army's specialist explosive ordnance disposal team are currently examining a number of vehicles," the statement said

Whelford is close to the Royal Air Force base at Fairford which has been used by US B-1 bombers involved in targeting Iran and is a forward operating location for US Global Strike Command, which is tasked with managing long-distance strikes.

A US air force spokesperson at Fairford - where the 501st ​Combat Support Wing is based - told CNN: "For operational security reasons we will not discuss specific force protection measures."

The unit "remains vigilant and will take appropriate actions to ensure the safety and security of our US service ⁠members, civilians, contractors, and their families," the spokesperson said.

The threat level at RAF Fairford has been raised to Delta. The threat level at RAF Lakenheath, which is also used by the USAF, has been raised to Charlie.

Threat level Delta suggests that there was prior intelligence to the potential attack and there is a large police presence deployed around the base.

As yet there has been no statement attributing the disrupted attack to any specific nation or organisation.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqrm99mm9l84o

UK counter-terrorism police are leading an investigation in which several men were arrested on suspicion of explosives offences near an RAF station which hosts the United States Air Force (USAF).

An Army explosive ordnance disposal team has been examining vehicles near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and homes in the nearby village of Whelford have been evacuated while investigations continue, police said.

The men were detained early on Sunday and a Hazardous Area Response Team has been deployed inside a security cordon at the base but officers believe the incident is contained.

The base has been recently used to deploy USAF bombers since the country's conflict in Iran began in February.

In March, four USAF bombers landed at RAF Fairford and the US started using British bases for "specific defensive operations" against Iranian missile sites after then prime minister Sir Keir Starmer granted permission for "defensive" US action from UK bases.

A government spokesperson said Prime Minister Andy Burnham was receiving regular updates on the evolving situation.

A police statement has just been made (13:56 BST):

Three suspicious white vans were reported by a telephone call to be heading towards the Fairford area at 12:45 am

Police stopped the vehicles and have detained 5 men, who remain in custody. They are held under suspicion of committing offences related to the Explosives Act.

The vehicles are being investigated by a military Explosive Ordnance Disposal team.

The police have just announced that the 5 detained men have been further charged with preparation of a terrorist act. [Corrected at 1427BST--JR]