Historian Garrett M. Graff describes his upcoming book, [1] The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb . "I assembled an oral history of the Manhattan Project, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the end of World War II in the Pacific, told through the voices of around 500 participants and witnesses of the events — including luminaries like Albert Einstein and Oppenheimer and political figures like President Harry Truman."

It was 80 years ago this week that physicists and 150 other leaders in the atomic bomb program "gathered in the desert outside Alamogordo, New Mexico, for the world's first test of a nuclear explosion." In [2]an except from his upcoming book , Graff publishes quotes from eyewitness:

> Brig. Gen. Leslie Groves: I had become a bit annoyed with Fermi when he suddenly offered to take wagers from his fellow scientists on whether or not the bomb would ignite the atmosphere, and if so, whether it would merely destroy New Mexico or destroy the world. He had also said that after all it wouldn't make any difference whether the bomb went off or not because it would still have been a well worthwhile scientific experiment. For if it did fail to go off, we would have proved that an atomic explosion was not possible. Afterward, I realized that his talk had served to smooth down the frayed nerves and ease the tension of the people at the base camp, and I have always thought that this was his conscious purpose. Certainly, he himself showed no signs of tension that I could see...

>

> As the hour approached, we had to postpone the test — first for an hour and then later for 30 minutes more — so that the explosion was actually three- and one-half hours behind the original schedule... Our preparations were simple. Everyone was told to lie face down on the ground, with his feet toward the blast, to close his eyes and to cover his eyes with his hands as the countdown approached zero. As soon as they became aware of the flash they could turn over and sit or stand up, covering their eyes with the smoked glass with which each had been supplied... The quiet grew more intense. I, myself, was on the ground between Bush and Conant...

>

> Edward Teller: We all were lying on the ground, supposedly with our backs turned to the explosion. But I had decided to disobey that instruction and instead looked straight at the bomb. I was wearing the welder's glasses that we had been given so that the light from the bomb would not damage our eyes. But because I wanted to face the explosion, I had decided to add some extra protection. I put on dark glasses under the welder's glasses, rubbed some ointment on my face to prevent sunburn from the radiation, and pulled on thick gloves to press the welding glasses to my face to prevent light from entering at the sides... We all listened anxiously as the broadcast of the final countdown started; but, for whatever reason, the transmission ended at minus five seconds...

>

> Kenneth T. Bainbridge: My personal nightmare was knowing that if the bomb didn't go off or hang-fired, I, as head of the test, would have to go to the tower first and seek to find out what had gone wrong...

>

> Brig. Gen. Thomas F. Farrell: Dr. Oppenheimer held on to a post to steady himself. For the last few seconds, he stared directly ahead.

A few examples of how they remembered the explosion:

William L. Laurence: There rose from the bowels of the earth a light not of this world, the light of many suns in one.

Kenneth T. Bainbridge: I felt the heat on the back of my neck, disturbingly warm.

George B. Kistiakowsky: I am sure that at the end of the world — in the last millisecond of the earth's existence — the last man will see what we have just seen.

Brig. Gen. Thomas F. Farrell: Oppenheimer's face relaxed into an expression of tremendous relief.

J. Robert Oppenheimer: We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried.

Norris Bradbury, physicist, Los Alamos Lab: Some people claim to have wondered at the time about the future of mankind. I didn't. We were at war, and the damned thing worked.



[1] https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Devil-Reached-Toward-the-Sky/Garrett-M-Graff/9781668092392

[2] https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/07/18/first-nuclear-bomb-trinity-oral-history-00455763

[1]ABC News reports :

> Dialogue heard on a cockpit voice recording indicates that the captain of the Air India flight that crashed in June, killing 260 people, may have turned off the fuel just after takeoff, prompting the first officer to panic, [2]according to The Wall Street Journal , which cited sources familiar with U.S. official's early assessment... The president of the Federation of Indian Pilots condemned the Wall Street Journal report, saying, "The preliminary report nowhere states that the pilots have moved the fuel control switches, and this has been corroborated by the CVR [cockpit voice recorder] recording."

But meanwhile "India on Monday ordered its airlines to examine fuel switches on several Boeing aircraft models," [3]reports Reuters , "while South Korea ordered a similar measure on Tuesday, as scrutiny intensified of fuel switch locks at the centre of an investigation into a deadly Air India crash."

> The precautionary moves by the two countries and airlines in several others came despite the planemaker and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration assuring airlines and regulators in recent days that the fuel switch locks on Boeing jets [4]are safe ... [The preliminary report] noted a 2018 advisory from the FAA, which recommended, but did not mandate, operators of several Boeing models, including the 787, to inspect the locking feature of fuel cutoff switches to ensure they could not be moved accidentally... Some airlines around the world told Reuters they had been checking relevant switches since 2018 in accordance with the FAA advisory, including Australia's Qantas Airways. Others said they had made additional or new checks since the release of the preliminary report into the Air India crash.

The web site of India's Financial Express newspaper spoke to [5]Mary Schiavo , who was Inspector General of America's Transportation Department from 1990 to 1996 (and is also a long-time critic of the FAA). The site notes Schiavo " [6]rejected the claims of human error that a pilot downed the Ahmedabad to London flight by cutting off the fuel supply."

> Schiavo exclusively told FinancialExpress.com that this is not the first time fuel switch transitioned from "Run" to "Cutoff" on its own. It happened five years ago, too. "There was an All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight in 2019 in which the 787 aircraft did this itself, while the flight was on final approach. No pilot input cutting off the fuel whatsoever," Schiavo told FinancialExpress.com... "The investigation revealed the plane software made the 787 think it was on the ground and the Thrust Control Malfunction Accommodation System cut the fuel to the engines," she told FinancialExpress.com, before adding, "The pilots never touched the fuel cutoff..." Both engines flamed out immediately after the pilot deployed the thrust reversers for landing. The aircraft, which was also a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, was towed away from the runway by the authorities, and no injuries were reported.

>

> UK Civil Aviation Authority, four weeks before the crash, had warned about similar fuel system issues on Boeing aircraft [on [7]May 15, 2025 ]. "The FAA has issued an Airworthiness Directive addressing a potential unsafe condition affecting fuel shutoff valves installed on Boeing aircraft," the UK regulator's notice read, listing the B737, B757, B767, B777 and B787...

>

> Thrust Control Malfunction Accommodation informs FADEC [ [8]a digital computer ] about whether the aircraft is on the ground or in the air, and if it believes the aircraft is on the ground, it may automatically throttle back the engines, without the pilot's input.

[9]Reuters notes that the Air India crash preliminary report "said maintenance records showed that the throttle control module, which includes the fuel switches, was replaced in 2019 and 2023 on the plane involved in the crash."

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader [10]wired_parrot for sharing the news.



[1] https://abcnews.go.com/International/air-india-captain-shut-off-fuel-ahead-deadly/story?id=123829589

[2] https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/air-india-crash-senior-pilot-eab72db5

[3] https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-orders-its-airlines-check-fuel-switches-boeing-jets-2025-07-14/

[4] https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/amid-air-india-probe-us-faa-boeing-notify-fuel-switch-locks-are-safe-document-2025-07-13/

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Schiavo

[6] https://www.financialexpress.com/business/airlines-aviation/ai-171-crash-boeing-787-experienced-fuel-switch-cut-off-in-2019-too-says-us-aviation-expert-japan-pilots-never-touched-it/3917100/

[7] https://www.caa.co.uk/publication/download/25076

[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FADEC

[9] https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-orders-its-airlines-check-fuel-switches-boeing-jets-2025-07-14/

[10] https://slashdot.org/~wired_parrot

"The U.S. is absolutely [1]facing the most serious Chinese hacking ever ." That's what the Washington Post was told by a China-focused consultant at security company SentinelOne:

> Undeterred by recent indictments alleging widespread cyberespionage against American agencies, journalists and infrastructure targets, Chinese hackers are hitting a wider range of targets and battling harder to stay inside once detected, seven current and former U.S. officials said in interviews. Hacks from suspected Chinese government actors detected by the security firm CrowdStrike more than doubled from 2023 to more than 330 last year and continued to climb as the new administration took over, the company said... Although the various Chinese hacking campaigns seem to be led by different government agencies and have different goals, all benefit from new techniques and from Beijing's introduction of a less constrained system for cyber offense, the officials and outside researchers told The Washington Post... Chinese intelligence, military and security agencies previously selected targets and tasked their own employees with breaking in, they said. But the Chinese government decided to take a more aggressive approach by allowing private industry to conduct cyberattacks and hacking campaigns on their own, U.S. officials said.

>

> The companies are recruiting top hackers who discover previously unknown, or "zero-day," flaws in software widely used in the United States. Then the companies search for where the vulnerable programs are installed, hack a great many of them at once, and then sell access to multiple Chinese government customers and other security companies. That hacking-for-hire approach creates hundreds of U.S. victims instead of a few, making it hard to block attacks and to decide which were China's key targets and which were unintentionally caught in the hacks, an FBI official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to follow agency practices... "The result of that incentive structure is that there is significantly more hacking...."

>

> China has mastered the ability to move undetected through networks of compromised U.S. devices, so that the final connection to a target appears to be an ordinary domestic connection. That makes it easy to get around technology that blocks overseas links and puts it outside the purview of the National Security Agency, which by law must avoid scrutinizing most domestic transmissions. Beijing is increasingly focused on hacking software and security vendors that provide access to many customers at once, the FBI official said. Once access is obtained, the hackers typically add new email and collaboration accounts that look legitimate... Beyond the increased government collaboration with China's private security sector is occasional [2]collaborating with criminal groups , said Ken Dunham, an analyst at the security firm Qualys.

The article notes that China's penetration of U.S. telecom carriers "is still not fully contained, according to the current and former officials." But in addition, the group behind that attack "has more recently shown up inside core communications infrastructure in Europe, according to John Carlin, a former top national security official in the Justice Department who represents some U.S. victims of the group." And documents [3]leaked last year from a security contractor that works with the Chinese military and other government groups "described contracts and targets in 20 countries, with booty including Indian immigration data, logs of calls in South Korea, and detailed information on roads in Taiwan.

"It also detailed prices for some services, such as $25,000 for promised remote access to an iPhone, payment disputes with government customers and employee gripes about long hours..."



[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-s-cyber-sector-amplifies-beijing-s-hacking-of-us-targets/ar-AA1IHXVL

[2] https://www.reuters.com/article/business/chinese-government-hackers-suspected-of-moonlighting-for-profit-idUSKCN1UX1JN/

[3] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/21/china-hacking-leak-documents-isoon/

The Independent [1]notes a remarkable-if-true figure that's being bandied around this week.

Meta "started making these, like, giant offers to a lot of people on our team," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told his brother Jack [2]on his podcast . "You know, like, $100 million signing bonuses, more than that [in] compensation per year... I'm really happy that, at least so far, none of our best people have decided to take him up on that."

> Previous reports have also suggested that Meta is targeting employees at Google DeepMind, offering similar levels of compensation. Some of these efforts appear to have been successful, with DeepMind researcher Jack Rae joining Meta's 'Superintelligence' team earlier this month...

>

> During the podcast, which was published on Tuesday, Mr Altman also gave details about future AI products that OpenAI is hoping to build, claiming that they will enable "crazy new social experiences" and "virtual employees". The most important breakthrough over the next decade, he said, would involve radical new discoveries powered by AI. "The thing that I think will be the most impactful in that five-to-10 year timeframe is AI will actually discover new science," he said.

[3]The Washington Post notes that Zuckerberg "responded to recent reports of his compensation offers in [4]an interview posted by the Information on YouTube on Tuesday, saying that 'a lot of the numbers specifically have been inaccurate" but acknowledging there is "an absolute premium for the best and most talented people."

> Zuckerberg's recent hires and other comments this week suggest he's not taking any chances of being left behind. He announced plans for a giant data center campus large enough to obscure Manhattan to power future AI projects by his superintelligence team.



[1] https://www.the-independent.com/tech/zuckerberg-chatgpt-ai-meta-openai-altman-b2772120.html

[2] https://youtu.be/mZUG0pr5hBo

[3] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/why-ai-superathletes-could-be-winning-100-million-bonuses-in-silicon-valley/ar-AA1IHNgr

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDDOy90V4Jo

"Commodore has returned from a parallel timeline where tech stayed optimistic, inviting, and human," [1]explains the official web site for "the first real Commodore computer in over 30 years..." You can check out [2]an ad for it here . "Not an emulator. Not a PC... Powered by a FPGA recreation of the original motherboard, wrapped in glowing game-reactive LEDs (or classic beige of course)."

[3] Fast Company calls it "a $299 device that its makers claim is compatible with over 10,000 retro games, cartridges, and peripherals." In [4]a YouTube video posted last month, "Peri Fractic" said he'd purchased the company for "a low seven-figure sum," and said he'd recruited several former Commodore employees to help relaunch the brand.

> The new C64s are expected to begin shipping as early as October, though that date could slip... There are three models to choose from, all with the same internal components. If you were expecting a vastly outdated machine, however, you're in for a surprise. The Commodore 64 Ultimate will include [5]128 megabytes of RAM and 16 megabytes of flash memory. It connects to modern monitors via HDMI in high-definition 1080p resolution and features three USB-A ports and one USB-C port. Beyond the computer itself, the power source, and HDMI cable, your $299 also gets you a spiral-bound user guide, a 64-gigabyte USB drive featuring over 50 licensed games, a quick-start guide, and stickers.

>

> Aesthetically, the Commodore 64 Ultimate is available in the original beige or in premium variants: the Starlight Edition, with a clear case and LED lights ($249), or the Founder's Edition, which includes 24-karat gold-plated badges, satin gold keys, and a translucent amber case ($499). Just 6,400 units of the Founder's Edition will be produced, according to the company. The preorder setup resembles a Kickstarter campaign, though it doesn't use that platform. Commodore says all preorders come with a money-back guarantee, but it chose to skip the service's fees. Buyers should be aware that accounts are charged at the time of preorder...

>

> The product will come with a one-year limited warranty, and Commodore says most parts are already in production, including the updated motherboard, the case, and the keycaps that recreate the blocky keys that early users remember.



[1] https://www.commodore.net/

[2] https://youtu.be/Vj6P77W8DJg

[3] https://www.fastcompany.com/91368653/this-beloved-retro-gaming-computer-is-making-a-comeback-and-itll-cost-you-299

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke-Ao-CpI7E

[5] https://x.com/MuseumCommodore/status/1944184466764968397

San Francisco-based startup Orchid Health "screens embryos for thousands of potential future illnesses," [1]reports the Washington Post , calling it "the first company to say it can sequence an embryo's entire genome of 3 billion base pairs."

> It uses as few as five cells from an embryo to test for more than 1,200 of these uncommon single-gene-derived, or monogenic, conditions. The company also applies custom-built algorithms to produce what are known as polygenic risk scores, which are designed to measure a future child's genetic propensity for developing complex ailments later in life, such as bipolar disorder, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, obesity and schizophrenia. Orchid, [founder Noor] Siddiqui [2]said in a tweet , is ushering in "a generation that gets to be genetically blessed and avoid disease." Right now, at $2,500 per embryo-screening on top of the average $20,000 for a single cycle of IVF, Siddiqui's social network in Silicon Valley and other tech hubs is an ideal target market...

>

> Yet several genetic scientists told The Post they doubt Orchid's core claim: that it can accurately sequence an entire human genome from just five cells collected from an early-stage embryo, enabling it to see many more single- and multiple-gene-derived disorders than other methods have. Experts have struggled to extract accurate genetic information from small embryonic samples, said Svetlana Yatsenko, a Stanford University pathology professor who specializes in clinical and research genetics. Genetic tests that use saliva or blood samples typically collect hundreds of thousands of cells. For its vastly smaller samples, Orchid uses a process called amplification, which creates copies of the DNA retrieved from the embryo. That process, Yatsenko said, can introduce major inaccuracies. "You're making many, many mistakes in the amplification," she said, rendering it problematic to declare any embryo free of a particular disease, or positive for one. "It's basically Russian roulette...."

>

> Numerous fertility doctors and scientists also told The Post they have serious reservations about screening embryos through polygenic risk scoring, the technique that allows Orchid and other companies to predict future disease by tying clusters of hundreds or even thousands of genes to disease outcomes and in some cases to other traits, such as intelligence and height. The vast majority of diseases that afflict humans are associated with many different genes rather than a single gene... And for traits such as intelligence, polygenic scoring has [3]almost negligible predictive capacity — just a handful of IQ points... Or parents might select against an unwanted trait, such as schizophrenia, without understanding how they may be screening out desired traits associated with the same genes, such as creativity... The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics [4]calls the benefits of screening embryos for polygenic risks "unproven" and warns that such tests "should not be offered" by clinicians. A pioneer of polygenic risk scores, Harvard epidemiology professor Peter Kraft, has criticized Orchid, [5]saying on X that "the science doesn't add up" and that "waving a magic wand and changing some of these variants at birth may not do anything at all."

The article notes several startups are already providing predictions on intelligence. "In the United States, there are virtually no restrictions on the types of genetic predictions companies can offer, and no external vetting of their proprietary scoring methods."



[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/science/genetics/ar-AA1IHFHO

[2] https://x.com/noor_siddiqui_/status/1859232081202893153

[3] https://www.psypost.org/how-well-can-genetic-scores-predict-iq-heres-what-the-latest-research-reveals/

[4] https://www.gimjournal.org/article/S1098-3600(23)01068-7/pdf

[5] https://x.com/genes_pk/status/1380553618777063427?s=46

Felix Baumgartner has died. He was 56.

In 2012 Slashdot [1]extensively [2]covered [3]the [4]skydiver's " [5]leap from the edge of space ." ABC News remembers it as a Red Bull-financed stunt that involved "diving 24 miles from the edge of space, in a plummet that [6]reached a speed of more than 500 mph ."

> Baumgartner recalled the legendary jump in the documentary, "Space Jump," and said, "I was the first human being outside of an aircraft breaking the speed of sound and the history books. Nobody remembers the second one...."

>

> Baumgartner, also known as "Fearless Felix," accomplished many records in his career, including setting the world record for highest parachute jump atop the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, flying across the English Channel in a wingsuit in 2003, and base jumping from the 85-foot arm of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil in 2007.

"Baumgartner's altitude record stood for two years," [7]remembers the Los Angeles Times , "until Google executive Alan Eustace set new marks for the highest free-fall jump and greatest free-fall distance."

They report that Baumgartner died Thursday "while engaged in a far less intense activity, crashing into the side of a hotel swimming pool while paragliding in Porto Sant Elpidio, a town on central Italy's eastern coast." More details [8]from the Associated Press :

> "It is a destiny that is very hard to comprehend for a man who has broke all kinds of records, who has been an icon of flight, and who traveled through space," Mayor Massimiliano Ciarpella told The Associated Press.Ciarpella said that Baumgartner had been in the area on vacation, and that investigators believed he may have fallen ill during the fatal flight... Baumgartner, a former Austrian military parachutist, made thousands of jumps from planes, bridges, skyscrapers and famed landmarks...

[9]ABC News remembers that in 2022 Baumgartner [10]wrote in Newsweek that "Since I was a little kid, I've always looked up to people who left a footprint on this planet... now I think I have left a footprint...

"I believe big dreamers always win."



[1] https://science.slashdot.org/story/12/10/08/1818213/supersonic-skydive-attempt-delayed-24-hours

[2] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/10/07/1628237/felix-baumgartner-prepares-for-supersonic-skydive-attempt-in-new-mexico

[3] https://science.slashdot.org/story/12/10/14/216230/the-tech-behind-felix-baumgartners-stratospheric-skydive

[4] https://science.slashdot.org/story/12/10/14/1616217/felix-baumgartners-supersonic-skydive-attempt

[5] https://science.slashdot.org/story/12/09/25/2340244/austrian-skydiver-prepared-to-leap-from-edge-of-space

[6] https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/skydiver-felix-baumgartner-dies-56/story?id=123848075

[7] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/daredevil-legend-fearless-felix-baumgartner-dies-in-paragliding-accident-at-56/ar-AA1IRmR0

[8] https://apnews.com/article/felix-baumgartner-death-paragliding-skydiver-40aee076396adceffdd322d4105af0e4

[9] https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/skydiver-felix-baumgartner-dies-56/story?id=123848075

[10] https://www.newsweek.com/i-skydived-earth-atmosphere-red-bull-stratos-felix-baumgartner-1752086

" [1]Nearly 2 million people protected their privacy by deleting their DNA from 23andMe after it declared bankruptcy in March," [2]writes a Washington Post technology columnist .

"Now it's back with the same person in charge — and I still don't trust it."

> As of this week, genetic data from the more than 10 million remaining 23andMe customers has been formally [3]sold to an organization called [4]TTAM Research Institute for $305 million. That nonprofit is run by the person who co-founded and ran 23andMe, Anne Wojcicki. In a recent email to customers, the new 23andMe said it "will be operating with the same employees and privacy protocols that have protected your data." Never mind that Wojcicki and her privacy protocols are what put your DNA at risk in the first place...

>

> The company is legally obligated to maintain and honor 23andMe's existing privacy policies, user consents and data protection measures. And as part of a [5]settlement with states , TTAM also agreed to provide annual privacy reports to state regulators and set up a privacy board. But it hasn't agreed to take the fundamental step of asking for permission to acquire existing customers' genetic information. And it's leaving the door open to selling people's genes to the highest bidder again in the future...

>

> Existing 23andMe customers have the right to delete their data or opt out of TTAM's research. But the new company is not asking for opt-in permission before it takes ownership of customers' DNA... Why does that matter? Because people who handed over the DNA 15 years ago, often to learn about their genetic ancestry, never imagined it might be used in this way now. Asking for new permission might significantly shrink the size (and value) of 23andMe's DNA database — but it would be the right thing to do given the [6]rocky history . Neil M. Richards [the Washington University professor who served as privacy ombudsman for the bankruptcy court], pointed out that about a third of 23andMe customers haven't logged in for at least three years, so they may have no idea what is going on. Some 23andMe users never even clicked "agree" on a legal agreement that allowed their data to be sold like this; the word "bankruptcy" wasn't added to the company's privacy policy until 2022. And then there is an unknown number of deceased users who most certainly can't consent, but whose DNA still has an impact on their living genetic relatives...

>

> [S]everal states have argued that their existing genetic privacy laws don't allow 23andMe to receive the information without getting permission from every single person. Virginia has an ongoing lawsuit over the issue, and the California attorney general's office told me it "will continue to fight to protect and vindicate the rights" of consumers....

Two more points of concern:

"There is nothing in 23andMe's bankruptcy agreement or privacy statement to prevent TTAM from selling or transferring DNA to some other organization in the future."

The article also notes [7]a 2023 data breach affecting 6.9 million users , arguing "They haven't shown they can keep your data safe... 23andMe's financial struggles could make it hard to run a robust cybersecurity program."



[1] https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/06/11/214242/23andme-says-15-of-customers-asked-to-delete-their-genetic-data-since-bankruptcy

[2] https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/23andme-is-out-of-bankruptcy-you-should-still-delete-your-dna/ar-AA1ILWfK

[3] https://www.npr.org/2025/06/30/nx-s1-5451398/23andme-sale-approved-dna-data

[4] https://ttamresearchinstitute.org/

[5] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/06/10/23andme-genetic-dna-privacy-bankruptcy/

[6] https://css.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/03/25/23andme-collapse-dna-data/

[7] https://it.slashdot.org/story/23/12/04/1911229/23andme-confirms-hackers-stole-ancestry-data-on-69-million-users

Microsoft will [1]stop using China-based engineers to support U.S. military cloud services after a ProPublica report [2]revealed their involvement, prompting backlash from Senator Tom Cotton and a two-week Pentagon review ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. In response, Hegseth announced an immediate ban on any Chinese involvement in Department of Defense cloud contracts. Reuters reports:

> The report detailed Microsoft's use of Chinese engineers to work on U.S. military cloud computing systems under the supervision of U.S. "digital escorts" hired through subcontractors who have security clearances but often lacked the technical skills to assess whether the work of the Chinese engineers posed a cybersecurity threat. [Microsoft] told ProPublica it disclosed its practices to the U.S. government during an authorization process.

>

> On Friday, Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw said on social media website X the company changed how it supports U.S. government customers "in response to concerns raised earlier this week ... to assure that no China-based engineering teams are providing technical assistance" for services used by the Pentagon.



[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/microsoft-stop-using-engineers-china-tech-support-us-military-hegseth-orders-2025-07-18/

[2] https://www.propublica.org/article/microsoft-digital-escorts-pentagon-defense-department-china-hackers

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch:

> California Forever [1]announced on Thursday [2]plans to build a massive manufacturing park called Solano Foundry , the newest addition to its master-planned "utopian" city backed by a group of Silicon Valley billionaires. Solano Foundry is 2,100 acres that can host 40 million square feet of advanced tech manufacturing space. The manufacturing park will be built as part of its planned walkable city with over 175,000 homes, CEO Jan Sramek said at the Reindustrialize conference in Detroit.

>

> Sramek [3]tweeted that U.S. manufacturers can't win by "building factories off of random freeway exits in the middle of nowhere. The best people don't want to work there." This site will offer expedited permitting, transportation for finished goods, and plenty of power from renewable energy, he said. The hope is that it will attract hardware, engineering, and AI talent from relatively nearby Silicon Valley. Solano County is about 40 miles northeast of San Francisco.



[1] https://californiaforever.com/california-forever-unveils-the-solano-foundry/

[2] https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/17/utopian-city-california-forever-announces-huge-tech-manufacturing-park/

[3] https://x.com/jansramek/status/1945897306579939709?s=46&t=dDcpMIMYg6fdPePSTT9k6w

[1]BrianFagioli shares a report from NERDS.xyz:

> Intel has quietly [2]pulled the plug on Clear Linux OS , officially ending support for the [3]once-promising [4]Linux distribution that it had backed for nearly a decade. Effective immediately, the company says it will no longer provide any updates, security patches, or maintenance for the operating system. In a final blow, the Clear Linux OS GitHub repository is now [5]archived in read-only mode .

>

> The move was announced with little fanfare, and for users still relying on Clear Linux OS, there's no sugarcoating it... you need to move on. Intel is urging everyone to migrate to an actively maintained Linux distribution as soon as possible to avoid running unpatched software.

"Rest assured that Intel remains deeply invested in the Linux ecosystem, actively supporting and contributing to various open-source projects and Linux distributions to enable and optimize for Intel hardware," the company said in [6]a statement . "A heartfelt thank you to every developer, user, and contributor who helped shape Clear Linux OS over the last 10 years. Your feedback and contributions have been invaluable."



[1] https://slashdot.org/~BrianFagioli

[2] https://nerds.xyz/2025/07/intel-kills-clear-linux-os/

[3] https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/01/12/1724210/intels-clear-linux-distribution-offers-fast-out-of-the-box-performance

[4] https://linux.slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/1958234/ryzen-9-9950x-performs-16-faster-on-intel-optimized-linux-distro

[5] https://github.com/clearlinux

[6] https://community.clearlinux.org/t/all-good-things-come-to-an-end-shutting-down-clear-linux-os/10716

At Sotheby's Geek Week auction, the largest known Martian meteorite on Earth [1]sold for a record-breaking $5.3 million . The Associated Press reports:

> The 54-pound (25-kilogram) rock named NWA 16788 was discovered in the Sahara Desert in Niger by a meteorite hunter in November 2023, after having been blown off the surface of Mars by a massive asteroid strike and traveling 140 million miles (225 million kilometers) to Earth, according to Sotheby's. The estimated sale price before the auction was $2 million to $4 million. The identity of the buyer was not immediately disclosed. The final bid was $4.3 million. Adding various fees and costs, the official sale price was about $5.3 million, making it the most valuable meteorite ever sold at auction, Sotheby's said.

>

> The live bidding was slow, with the auctioneer trying to coax more offers and decreasing the minimum bid increases. [...] The bidding for the Mars meteorite began with two advance offers of $1.9 million and $2 million. The live bidding slowly proceeded with increases of $200,000 and $300,000 until $4 million, then continued with $100,000 increases until reaching $4.3 million. The red, brown and gray meteorite is about 70% larger than the next largest piece of Mars found on Earth and represents nearly 7% of all the Martian material currently on this planet, Sotheby's says. It measures nearly 15 inches by 11 inches by 6 inches (375 millimeters by 279 millimeters by 152 millimeters). It was also a rare find. There are only 400 Martian meteorites out of the more than 77,000 officially recognized meteorites found on Earth, the auction house says.



[1] https://apnews.com/article/mars-rock-meteorite-auction-dinosaur-sothebys-01d7ccfc8dc580ad86f8e97a305fc8fa

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Live Science:

> In a world first, scientists have demonstrated an enigmatic phenomenon in quantum computing that could pave the way for fault-tolerant machines that are far more powerful than any supercomputer. The process, called " [1]magic state distillation ," was [2]first proposed 20 years ago , but its use in logical qubits has eluded scientists ever since. It has long been considered crucial for producing the high-quality resources, known as " [3]magic states ," needed to fulfill the full potential of quantum computers. [...] Now, however, scientists with QuEra say they have [4]demonstrated magic state distillation in practice for the first time on logical qubits . They outlined their findings in a new study [5]published July 14 in the journal Nature .

>

> In the study, using the Gemini neutral-atom quantum computer, the scientists distilled five imperfect magic states into a single, cleaner magic state. They performed this separately on a Distance-3 and a Distance-5 logical qubit, demonstrating that it scales with the quality of the logical qubit. "A greater distance means better logical qubits. A Distance-2, for instance, means that you can detect an error but not correct it. Distance-3 means that you can detect and correct a single error. Distance-5 would mean that you can detect and correct up to two errors, and so on, and so on," [explained Yuval Boger, chief commercial officer at QuEra who was not personally involved in the research]. "So the greater the distance, the higher fidelity of the qubit is -- and we liken it to distilling crude oil into a jet fuel."

>

> As a result of the distillation process, the fidelity of the final magic state exceeded that of any input. This proved that fault-tolerant magic state distillation worked in practice, the scientists said. This means that a quantum computer that uses both logical qubits and high-quality magic states to run non-Clifford gates is now possible. "We're seeing sort of a shift from a few years ago," Boger said. "The challenge was: can quantum computers be built at all? Then it was: can errors be detected and corrected? Us and Google and others have shown that, yes, that can be done. Now it's about: can we make these computers truly useful? And to make one computer truly useful, other than making them larger, you want them to be able to run programs that cannot be simulated on classical computers."



[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_state_distillation

[2] https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0402171

[3] https://quantumcomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/13629/what-are-magic-states

[4] https://www.livescience.com/technology/computing/scientists-make-magic-state-breakthrough-after-20-years-without-it-quantum-computers-can-never-be-truly-useful

[5] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09367-3?error=cookies_not_supported&code=2ab0fca6-4c5c-41d6-a6cd-2d1d5430f4ae

Google has [1]filed a lawsuit to dismantle the sprawling Badbox 2.0 botnet , which [2]infected over 10 million Android devices with pre-installed malware. Badbox 2.0 "is already the largest known botnet of internet-connected TV devices, and it grows each day. It has harmed millions of victims in the United States and around the world and threatens many more," Google said in [3]its complaint . SecurityWeek reports:

> The internet giant cautions that, while it has been used mainly for fraud, the botnet could be used for more harmful types of cybercrime, such as ransomware or distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. In addition to pre-installing the malware on devices, Badbox 2.0's operators also tricked users into installing infected applications that provided them with further access to their personal devices, Google says. As part of their operation, the individuals behind Badbox 2.0 sold access to the infected devices to be used as residential proxies, and conducted ad fraud schemes by abusing these devices to create fake ad views or to exploit pay-per-click compensation models, the company continues. The internet giant also points out that this is the second global botnet the perpetrators have built, after the initial Badbox botnet was disrupted by German law enforcement in 2023.

>

> According to Google, Badbox 2.0 is operated by multiple cybercrime groups from China, each having a different role in maintaining the botnet, such as establishing infrastructure, developing and pre-installing the malware on devices, and conducting fraud. "The BadBox 2.0 Enterprise includes several connected threat actor groups that design and implement complex criminal schemes targeting internet-connected devices both before and after the consumer receives the device," Google says. "While each member of the Enterprise plays a distinct role, they all collaborate to execute the BadBox 2.0 Scheme. All of the threat actor groups are connected to one another through the BadBox 2.0 shared C2 infrastructure and historical and current business ties," the company continues.



[1] https://www.securityweek.com/google-sues-operators-of-10-million-device-badbox-2-0-botnet/

[2] https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/06/06/2033225/fbi-badbox-20-android-malware-infects-millions-of-consumer-devices

[3] https://blog.google/technology/safety-security/google-taking-legal-action-against-the-badbox-20-botnet/

Christine Hunsicker, founder of the failed "Clothing-as-a-Service" startup CaaStle, has been [1]criminally charged with defrauding investors of over $300 million by falsifying financials and misrepresenting the company's health. CNBC reports:

> Authorities said Christine Hunsicker, 48, of Lafayette, New Jersey, promoted CaaStle to investors as a more than $1.4 billion "Clothing-as-a-Service" business that helped companies rent apparel to consumers with an option to buy, despite knowing it was financially distressed and short of cash. The alleged fraud spanned six years starting in 2019, three years after the Princeton University alumna was named one of Inc magazine's "Most Impressive Women Entrepreneurs" and Crain's New York Business' "40 Under 40."

>

> Hunsicker was charged in a six-count indictment with wire fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, making false statements to a bank and aggravated identity theft. She turned herself in to authorities, and could face decades in prison if convicted. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a related civil lawsuit. In a joint statement, Hunsicker's lawyers Michael Levy and Anna Skotko said the indictment presented "an incomplete and very distorted picture," despite their client being "fully cooperative and transparent" with prosecutors. "There is much more to this story, and we look forward to telling it," the lawyers added.

>

> Authorities said Hunsicker falsified CaaStle's financial statements and bank records to raise capital. This included alleged representations that CaaStle earned $66.3 million on revenue of $439.9 million in 2023, when it actually lost $81 million on revenue of $15.7 million. Hunsicker was also accused of falsely telling investors their money would go toward buying discounted shares from existing shareholders who needed liquidity, including after the 2022 collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange. Prosecutors said Hunsicker fraudulently raised more than $275 million for CaaStle and $30 million for a related venture, P180.



[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/18/clothing-tech-entrepreneur-charged-with-300-million-fraud-in-us.html

An anonymous reader quotes [1]a report from TechCrunch :

> Privacy-focused browser DuckDuckGo is [2]rolling out a new setting that lets users filter out AI images in search results. The company says it's launching the feature in response to feedback from users who said AI images can get in the way of finding what they're looking for.

>

> Users can access the new setting by conducting a search on DuckDuckGo and heading to the Images tab. From there, they will see a new dropdown menu titled "AI images." Users can then choose whether or not they want to see AI content by selecting "show" or "hide." Users can also turn on the filter in their search settings by tapping the "Hide AI-Generated Images" option.

"The filter relies on manually curated open-source blocklists, including the 'nuclear' list, provided by uBlockOrigin and uBlacklist Huge AI Blocklist," DuckDuckGo said in [3]a post on X. "While it won't catch 100% of AI-generated results, it will greatly reduce the number of AI-generated images you see." DuckDuckGo says it has plans to add other similar filters in the future.



[1] https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/18/duckduckgo-now-lets-you-hide-ai-generated-images-in-search-results/

[2] https://x.com/DuckDuckGo/status/1944766326381089118

[3] https://x.com/DuckDuckGo/status/1944766326381089118

Brandon Vigliarolo writes via The Register:

> A tech executive's alleged affair exposed on a stadium jumbotron is ripe fodder for the gossip rags, but it exhibits something else: proof that we need not wait for an AI-fueled dystopian surveillance state to descend on us -- [1]we're perfectly able and willing to surveil ourselves . The [2]embracing couple caught at a Coldplay concert this week as the jumbotron camera panned around the audience would have been another unremarkable clip, if not for the pair panicking and rushing to hide, triggering attendees to publish the memorable moment on social media. "Either they're having an affair or they're very shy," Coldplay singer Chris Martin said of the pair's reaction.

>

> As is always the case when viral moments of unknown people get uploaded to the internet, they didn't remain anonymous for long, with the internet quickly identifying them as the CEO of data infrastructure outfit Astronomer, Andy Byron, and its Chief People Officer, Kristin Cabot. We're not going to weigh in on Byron's, who internet sleuths have [3]determined is married (for now), or Cabot's behavior - making someone pay for the moral transgression of an alleged extramarital affair may be enough reason for the internet to go on a witch hunt, but that's not our concern here.

>

> What's worrying is what this moment says - yet again - about us as a society: We have cameras everywhere, our personal data has become one of the most valuable commodities in the world, and we're all perpetually ready to use that tech to make those we feel have violated the social contract pay publicly for their transgressions. This is hardly a new phenomenon. [...] There's really no reason to set up an expensive and oppressive surveillance state when we all have location tracking, internet-connected shaming machines in our pockets. Big tech gave us the tools of our own surveillance, and as "ColdplayGate" shows yet again, we'll keep using those tools if they'll make us feel better about ourselves - especially if someone else gets knocked down a peg in the process.



[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/18/coldplay_kiss_cam_privacy/

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jul/18/couple-caught-coldplay-kiss-cam-affair-very-shy

[3] https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/articles/astronomer-ceo-andy-byron-wife-222557843.html

President Trump [1]signed the GENIUS Act into law , marking the first major U.S. regulation of stablecoins by creating a legal framework for their issuance and consumer protections, while also championing crypto innovation as a major financial revolution. The bill [2]passed the House on Thursday with the support of 206 Republicans and 102 Democrats. From a report:

> Members of Congress and top executives from Robinhood, Tether, Gemini and other crypto and financial firms were in attendance for the signing ceremony. The fate of the [3]GENIUS Act was in question earlier this week when a dozen conservatives stymied a procedural vote. A compromise was ultimately reached, and the holdouts allowed the legislation to proceed. The president on Friday suggested that he spoke to the holdouts individually on the phone to persuade them, after House Speaker Mike Johnson told him there were a dozen Republicans opposing the bill.

>

> "The good news is, I call up, 'Hello, Jim, how are you?' 'Sir, you have my vote.' Boom. 'Sir, you have my vote.' I really just, they just want a little love," he said. "Unfortunately, it's always the same 12 people." David Sacks, the venture capitalist-turned Mr. Trump's AI and crypto czar, said the president "stepped in and saved this bill." Mr. Trump also said Vice President JD Vance had been on the phone late at night, helping push the legislation through.



[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-signs-genius-act-crypto-bill/

[2] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/07/17/2321219/house-passes-historic-crypto-bill-regulating-stablecoins

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GENIUS_Act

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica:

> A Polish programmer running on fumes recently accomplished what may soon become impossible: [1]beating an advanced AI model from OpenAI in a head-to-head coding competition . The 10-hour marathon left him "completely exhausted." On Wednesday, programmer Przemysaw Debiak (known as "Psyho"), a former OpenAI employee, narrowly defeated the custom AI model in the [2]AtCoder World Tour Finals 2025 Heuristic contest in Tokyo. AtCoder , a Japanese platform that hosts competitive programming contests and maintains global rankings, held what may be the first contest where an AI model competed directly against top human programmers in a major onsite world championship. During the event, the maker of ChatGPT participated as a sponsor and entered an AI model in a [3]special exhibition match titled "Humans vs AI." Despite the tireless nature of silicon, the company walked away with second place.

>

> The competition required contestants to solve a single complex optimization problem over 600 minutes. The contest echoes the American folk tale of John Henry, the steel-driving man who raced against a steam-powered drilling machine in the 1870s. Like Henry's legendary battle against industrial automation, Debiak's victory represents a human expert pushing themselves to their physical limits to prove that human skill still matters in an age of advancing AI. Both stories feature exhausting endurance contests -- Henry drove steel spikes for hours until his heart gave out, while Debiak coded for 10 hours on minimal sleep. The parallel extends to the bittersweet nature of both victories: Henry won his race but died from the effort, symbolizing the inevitable march of automation, while Debiak's acknowledgment that humanity prevailed "for now" suggests he recognizes this may be a temporary triumph against increasingly capable machines. While Debiak won 500,000 yen and survived his ordeal better than the legendary steel driver, the AtCoder World Tour Finals pushes humans and AI models to their limits through complex optimization challenges that have no perfect solution -- only incrementally better ones.

"Humanity has prevailed (for now!)," [4]wrote Debiak on X, noting he had little sleep while competing in several competitions across three days. "I'm completely exhausted. ... I'm barely alive."



[1] https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/07/exhausted-man-defeats-ai-model-in-world-coding-championship/

[2] https://atcoder.jp/contests/awtf2025heuristic

[3] https://atcoder.jp/posts/1516

[4] https://x.com/FakePsyho/status/1945444118924272018

Ring has [1]restored police access to user video footage and returned to its original crime-prevention mission under founder Jamie Siminoff, who rejoined Amazon in April after a two-year absence. The video doorbell company announced a partnership with law enforcement technology firm Axon that allows police to request footage through Axon's digital evidence management system, effectively reviving a controversial feature Ring [2]discontinued last year .

Siminoff scrapped Ring's socially-focused mission statement "Keep people close to what's important" that Amazon introduced in 2024 and reinstated the company's original mandate to "make neighborhoods safer." The company [3]previously paid $5.8 million to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations of privacy violations in 2023, though Amazon denied wrongdoing.



[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ring-founder-mode-jamie-siminoff-crime-fighting-roots-2025-7

[2] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/01/24/1640212/amazons-ring-to-stop-letting-police-request-doorbell-video-from-users

[3] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/04/26/2326208/ring-customers-get-56-million-in-refunds-in-privacy-settlement