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Submission + - California high-speed rail costs jump to $231B, nearly seven times 2008 estimate (kmph.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Senator Strickland pointed to comments from Lou Thompson, former chair of the California High-Speed Rail Authority peer review group, who recently criticized the latest draft business plan.

Thompson wrote that the 2026 draft plan “has reached a dead end,” arguing that the project has drifted far from its original vision due to escalating costs, delays, and unfunded gaps.

Under current projections, assuming funding and construction proceed as planned, service between San Francisco and Bakersfield could begin around 2033, while the full Los Angeles to San Francisco connection could extend to 2040.

Comment Re:The summary said they have a warrant (Score 2) 37

The issue is whether the (geofence)warrant was valid.

The defendant's position is geofence warrants violate the 4th amendment. The 4th Amendment requires that warrants "particularly describe the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Geofence warrants are "reverse searches." Instead of identifying a suspect and searching their location, police identify a location and search for every "suspect" (device) inside it.

Privacy advocates and several high-ranking judges argue that geofence warrants are modern-day "General Warrants"—the very thing the Founding Fathers sought to ban. They argue that sweeping up the data of 500 innocent bystanders to find one criminal is an "unreasonable" search.

Submission + - AST Spacemobile BlueBird 7 Satellite Lost (substack.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: "ASTS admits the satellite is too low and cannot be saved. Based on what the orbit appears to be. 20kg of fuel they can only raise it part of the way. During the New Glenn 3 mission, BlueBird 7 was placed into a lower than planned orbit by the upper stage of the launch vehicle. While the satellite separated from the launch vehicle and powered on, the altitude is too low to sustain operations with its on-board thruster technology and will de-orbited. The cost of the satellite is expected to be recovered under the company’s insurance policy."

Submission + - Trump Admin To Stop Taxpayer Funding Of Worthless College Degrees (thefederalist.com) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The U.S. Department of Education announced Friday it will be stripping federal student loan funding from any college program that does not yield a high salary after the student graduates.

Stereotypically worthless degrees in areas like "women's and gender studies" have become the standing joke that jabs at how unserious college has become. But under new proposed rulemaking from the Education Department, if schools want to offer degrees that bury students in debt while giving them poor job prospects, the institutions will have to fund those programs themselves.

“The Trump Administration’s proposed accountability framework is grounded in common sense: if postsecondary education programs do not leave graduates better off, taxpayers should not subsidize them,” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a press release. “This consensus-backed framework will drive meaningful change in postsecondary education, ending years of regulatory whiplash and addressing student debt that has left too many students worse off.”

Under the proposed rule, undergraduate programs will have to prove that degree recipients earn at least as much as a high school graduate before being eligible for student loan funding. Similarly, graduate school programs will need to prove higher earnings than an average bachelor's degree. The average high school graduate is estimated to earn about $40,000, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

The new rule “will better protect students and taxpayers by requiring institutions to sunset programs that do not deliver a strong financial return or to seek funding outside the federal financial aid system,” the department said.

The rule will be open for a public comment period for 30 days before becoming finalized, and is planned to take effect in July.

Comment Set Android advertising ID to all zeros (Score 5, Informative) 62

by schwit1 (#66101476) Attached to: Nevada Police Can Now Track Cellphones Without a Warrant

This should foil fogs data?

On stock systems, the UUID you are seeing is almost certainly the **Advertising ID** (Android) or **IDFA** (iPhone). Here is how to manage them:

1. **To Reset the ID:** Go to **Settings > Privacy > Ads** (or **Settings > Google > Ads**). Tap **Reset advertising ID**. This generates a completely new random UUID.
2. **To Delete the ID:** In the same menu, tap **Delete advertising ID**.
        * *Result:* Instead of a random string, apps will see a string of zeros (`00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000`). This is effectively "randomizing" it by making it useless for tracking.
3. **Automatic Randomization:** Stock Android does **not** have a native setting to rotate this ID automatically (e.g., daily). Only privacy-focused ROMs like CalyxOS or GrapheneOS offer that "shuffle" behavior.

Submission + - Fructose Isn't Just Sugar. It Acts More Like a Hormone (scienceblog.com) 1

Submitted by smazsyr
smazsyr writes: A new review says we've had fructose wrong for decades. The nine authors, led by Richard Johnson at the University of Colorado Anschutz, argue that fructose is not just a calorie. It is a signal. It tells the liver to make fat, hold on to water, and brace for a famine that never comes. The old story made sense for a bear fattening up on autumn berries. It makes less sense for a person drinking soda in March. The review reframes the WHO's sugar guideline. It is not really a warning about calories. It is a warning about a hormone-like molecule we have been dosing ourselves with, several times a day, for most of a century.

Submission + - Tennessee bill turns building a chatbot into a Class A felony (reddit.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Tennessee HB1455/SB1493 creates Class A felony criminal liability — the same category as first-degree murder — for anyone who “knowingly trains artificial intelligence” to provide emotional support, act as a companion, simulate a human being, or engage in open-ended conversations that could lead a user to feel they have a relationship with the AI. The Senate Judiciary Committee already approved it 7-0. It takes effect July 1, 2026. This affects every conversational AI product in existence. If you deploy any AI SaaS product, you need to read this right now.

Comment Re:Subsidies (Score 1) 240

by schwit1 (#66096016) Attached to: US Jobs Too Important To Risk Chinese Car Imports, Says Ford CEO

Ford doesn't get nearly what the CCP gives their manufacturers.

The CCP wants China to own/control certain industries. The auto industry is one of them. They MASSIVLEY subsidize to get this advantage. This is the result.
https://www.reuters.com/invest...

The consequence is a severely unlevel playing field that drives other car companies out of business.

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