Immagine è resistere. La visione un atto politico
@Giornalismo e disordine informativo
articolo21.org/2025/10/immagin…
Viviamo sospesi tra due forze contrarie. Da un lato c’è la vertigine del presente che accelera, con crisi che si susseguono senza tregua; dall’altro un futuro che pare sempre più difficile da immaginare. Presi in questa morsa,
Geplante Massenüberwachung: WhatsApp und Threema sind strikt gegen Chatkontrolle
netzpolitik.org/2025/geplante-…
Hackaday Links: October 5, 2025
What the Flock? It’s probably just some quirk of The Almighty Algorithm, but ever since we featured a story on Flock’s crime-fighting drones last week, we’ve been flooded with other stories about the company, some of which aren’t very flattering. The first thing that we were pushed was this handy interactive map of the company’s network of automatic license plate readers. We had no idea how extensive the network was, and while our location is relatively free from these devices, at least ones operated on behalf of state, county, or local law enforcement, we did learn to our dismay that our local Lowe’s saw fit to install three of these cameras on the entrances to their parking lot. Not wishing to have our coming and goings documented, we’ll be taking our home improvement dollars elsewhere for now.
But it’s a new feature being rolled out by Flock that really got our attention: the addition of “human distress” detection to their Raven acoustic gunshot detection system. From what we understand, gunshot detection systems use the sudden acoustic impulse generated by the supersonic passage of a bullet, the shock wave from the rapidly expanding powder charge of a fired round, or both to detect a gunshot, and then use the time-of-arrival difference between multiple sensors to estimate the shot’s point of origin. Those impulses carry a fair amount of information, but little of it is personally identifiable, at least directly. On the other hand, human voices carry a lot of personal information, and detecting the sounds of distress, such as screaming, would require very different monitoring techniques. We’d imagine it would be akin to what digital assistants use to monitor for wake words, which would mean turning the world — or at least pockets of it — into a gigantic Alex. We don’t much like the idea of having our every public utterance recorded and analyzed, even with the inevitable assurances from the company that the “non-distress” parts of the audio stream will never be listened to. Yeah, right.
Botnets are bad enough when it’s just routers or smart TVs that are exploited to mine crypto or spam comments on social media. But what if a botnet were made of, you know, actual robots? That might be something to watch out for with the announcement of a vulnerability in certain Unitree robots, including several of their humanoid robots. The vulnerability, still unpatched at the time of the Spectrum story, lies in the Bluetooth system used to set up the robots’ WiFi configuration. It sounds like an attacker can easily craft a BLE packet to become an authenticated user, after which the WiFi SSID and password fields can be used to inject arbitrary code. The fun doesn’t end there, though, since a compromised robot could then go on to infect any other nearby Unitree bots via BLE. And since Unitree seems to be staking out a market position as the leader in affordable humanoid robots, who’s to say what could happen? If you want a zombie robot apocalypse, this seems like a great way to get it.
Also from the “Bad Optics for Robots” files comes this story about a Waymo car that went just a little off course. Or rather, on course — a golf course, to be precise. Viral video shows a Waymo self-driving Jaguar creeping slowly across a golf course fairway as bemused golfers look on. But you can relax, because the robotaxi company says that this isn’t a case of their AI driving system going awry, but rather a human-driven robotaxi preparing for an event at the golf course. The company seems to think this absolves them, and perhaps it does officially and legally. But a very distinctive car that’s well-known for getting into self-driving mischief, appearing in a place one doesn’t typically associate with vehicles larger than golf carts, seems like a bad look for the company.
And finally, back in December of 2023, we dropped a link to My Mechanics’ restoration of a 1973 Datsun 240Z. He’s been making slow but steady progress on the car since then, with the most recent video covering his painstaking restoration of the rear axle and suspension. Where most car rebuild projects use as many replacement parts as possible, My Mechanics prefers to restore the original parts wherever possible. So, where a normal person might look at the chipped cooling fins on the original Z-car’s brake drums and order new ones, My Mechanics instead pulls out the TIG welder and lays up some beads to patch the broken fins. He used a similar technique to restore the severely chowdered compression fittings on the brake lines, something we’ve never seen down before. Over the top? You bet it is, but it still makes for great watching. Enjoy!
youtube.com/embed/LolBuzO8RWw?…
The GOP’s Government Shutdown
The GOP wants to shutdown the federal government.
It is true that Congress failed to pass a 2026 appropriation bill. The GOP controlled House passed an extension spending bill, but it did not pass in the Senate. It failed in the Senate because it did not have the 60 votes needed to close debate (i.e. cloture) and the Democrats were not willing to provide those votes without changes such as rolling back the GOP’s increase in health insurance premiums for Affordable Care Act recipients or blocking Trump’s unconstitutional efforts to not spend money Congress has already appropriated.
Requiring 60 votes to close debate is a Senate rule that can be changed by a simple majority vote in the Senate. There is nothing in the constitution that requires it. The GOP majority in the Senate could change the rule to close debate with a majority and pass their appropriations extension.
They choose not to. It allows GOP office holders to blame anyone, except themselves. The corporate media parrot their lies.
The GOP wants the federal government shutdown.
I am not talking about the changes in the bill. It is awful, of course, and would continue to let Trump use ICE to illegally round up people in apartment buildings, whether citizens, or immigrants documented or not. Trump could still force national guard members to illegally act like police in cities in other states. Trump has already laid off 12% of federal all workers and the bill would continue to let him illegally hold back billions of dollars Congress appropriated. Billions that should be given to clean energy projects, state transportation projects, VA benefits and needed medical research.
The GOP wants the federal government shutdown.
They want millions of federal workers to suffer from being furloughed unable to provide needed government services. They want us to face uncertainty and loss because those services are not available or require us to waste even more of our time to access them.
Since Trump was inaugurated the GOP has sought a federal government shutdown. Through the DOGEbros, they started their government shutdown as they held back funding and pushed illegal layoffs. The cost has been high to the rest of us. The economy and hiring has flatlined. Prices increased.
They don’t care.
The GOP wants the federal government shutdown and they will use any tool they have to make it happen.
Vote Pirate!
Mass. Pirate News: BPD Drones Over Boston?
Steve, Joe and James discuss HorizonMass/BINJ effort to use public records requests to determine if the drones over the Boston Dominican Parade and Caribbean Carnival were owned by the Boston Police Department. We also discussed the Trump administration’s recent efforts to censor free speech and an ex-Florida sheriff’s deputy attempt to spread disinformation from Russia.
youtube.com/embed/rHy8jXfhQVw?…
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Some links we mentioned:
- Our Administrative Coup Memory Bank;
- Our Things to Do when Fascists are Taking Over;
- Did The BPD Fly A Surveillance Drone Over The Dominican Parade? They Won’t Tell Us.
- Disney Plus Subscribers Quit in Droves Over Jimmy Kimmel Axe;
- 2025 shootings of Minnesota legislators;
- Russian fake-news network, led by an ex-Florida sheriff’s deputy, storms back into action with 200+ new sites.
Image Credit: CC-By-2.0 image via Wikipedia Commons by Maurizio Pesce.
"Trump minaccia Hamas"
ma quando mai un mediatore minaccia una delle 2 parti? Non ha alcun senso... non è una mediazione. trump non è ancora l'imperatore del mondo. ma si comporta come se lo fosse. non ha alcun senso... possibile che per i repubblicani tutto questo non appaia proprio di un universo parallelo distopico? quegli universo dove non è un dittatore di un film ma reale quello che fa una legge in cui le mutande devono essere portate sopra i pantaloni per poter essere più accuratamente ispezionate... il tono e livello delle leggi di trump è di questo livello di follia, oltre a essere un suicidio economico per gli stati uniti.
un mediatore che media tra 2 parti ha bisogno di costruire un rapporto di fiducia e comprensione con entrambe le parti. che senso ha "minacciare"?
ma nessuno si rende conto di quanto sia malata questa cosa? mi sento come una particella di sodio nell'acqua Lete che chiede se c'è qualcuno... questa è follia...
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POST NUMERO QUINDICIMILAUNO
differx.noblogs.org/2025/10/05…
ad oggi su differx.noblogs.org sono comparsi 15mila post, con picchi di visite giornaliere superiori alle 20mila, stando esclusivamente ai browser Chrome e Firefox --> [continua al link indicato]
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Divining Air Quality With A Cheap Computer Vision Device
There are all kinds of air quality sensors on the market that rely on all kinds of electro-physical effects to detect gases or contaminants and report them back as a value. [lucascreator] has instead been investigating a method of determining air quality that is closer to divination than measurement—using computer vision and a trained AI model.
The system relies on an Unihiker K10—a microcontroller module based around the ESP32-S3 at heart. The chip is running a lightweight convolutional neural network (CNN) trained on 12,000 images of the sky. These images were sourced from a public dataset; they were taken in India and Nepal, and tagged with the relevant Air Quality Index at the time of capture. [lucascreator] used this data to train their model to look at an image taken with a camera attached to the ESP32 and estimate the air quality index based on what it has seen in that existing dataset.
It might sound like a spurious concept, but it does have some value. [lucascreator] cites studies where video data was used for low-cost air quality estimation—not as a replacement for proper measurement, but as an additional data point that could be sourced from existing surveillance infrastructure. Performance of such models has, in some cases, been remarkably accurate.
[lucascreator] is pragmatic about the limitations of their implementation of this concept, noting that their very compact model didn’t always perform the best in terms of determining actual air quality. The concept may have some value, but implementing it on an ESP32 isn’t so easy if you’re looking for supreme accuracy. We’ve featured some other great air quality projects before, though, if you’re looking for other ways to capture this information. Video after the break.
youtube.com/embed/_N6jWXNrcxI?…
Vulnerabilità da 9.8 in Oracle E-Business Suite: aggiornamenti urgenti necessari
Oracle ha pubblicato un avviso di sicurezza relativo a una vulnerabilità critica identificata come CVE-2025-61882 presente nella suite Oracle E-Business. La falla può essere sfruttata da remoto senza necessità di autenticazione, consentendo potenzialmente l’esecuzione di codice malevolo sui sistemi colpiti.
L’azienda raccomanda ai propri clienti di applicare immediatamente gli aggiornamenti indicati nell’avviso. Oracle sottolinea l’importanza di mantenere le versioni dei prodotti attivamente supportate e di installare senza ritardo tutte le patch di sicurezza critiche. In particolare, l’aggiornamento delle patch critiche rilasciate nell’ottobre 2023 rappresenta un prerequisito per l’implementazione delle nuove correzioni.
Per supportare il rilevamento e il contenimento immediato di eventuali attacchi, l’avviso include una matrice dei rischi con indicatori di compromissione, quali indirizzi IP sospetti, comandi e file associati agli exploit conosciuti.
Prodotti interessati e patch disponibili
La vulnerabilità interessa specificamente le versioni di Oracle E-Business Suite dalla 12.2.3 alla 12.2.14. La documentazione ufficiale, disponibile tramite i link forniti da Oracle, contiene informazioni dettagliate sulle patch e sulle modalità di installazione.
Supporto e versioni legacy
Le patch fornite tramite il programma Security Alert sono disponibili solo per le versioni coperte dal Premier Support o dall’Extended Support secondo la Lifetime Support Policy di Oracle.
Le versioni non incluse in questi programmi non vengono testate per le vulnerabilità segnalate, anche se potrebbero comunque essere interessate. Per questa ragione, Oracle consiglia l’aggiornamento alle versioni supportate per garantire protezione e compatibilità con le patch di sicurezza.
Come verificare se si è affetti dal bug
La vulnerabilità CVE-2025-61882 riguarda Oracle E‑Business Suite ed è sfruttabile da remoto senza autenticazione, con potenziale esecuzione di codice remoto se sfruttata con successo.
Su GitHub è stato pubblicato un metodo pubblico di rilevamento che aiuta a identificare istanze potenzialmente non aggiornate. Il metodo segnala un’istanza come sospetta quando la pagina restituisce la stringa “E-Business Suite Home Page” e l’intestazione HTTP Last-Modified riporta una data precedente al 4 ottobre 2025 (timestamp Unix 1759602752).
Questo approccio è descritto come uno strumento di individuazione — non come un vettore di attacco — e dovrebbe essere usato esclusivamente per scopi di verifica e difesa. Per rimuovere il rischio, Oracle raccomanda l’applicazione delle patch indicate nell’avviso di sicurezza e l’aggiornamento alle versioni supportate.
Indicatori di compromissione (IOC)
Di seguito sono riportati gli indicatori di compromissione (indirizzi IP, comandi osservati e file) per supportare il rilevamento, la ricerca e il contenimento immediati.
L'articolo Vulnerabilità da 9.8 in Oracle E-Business Suite: aggiornamenti urgenti necessari proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.
Optimizing a QuickTake Image Decoder for the Apple II’s 6502
The idea of using the Apple II home computer for digital photography purposes may seem somewhat daft considering that this is not a purpose that they were ever designed for, yet this is the goal that [Colin Leroy-Mira] had, requiring some image decoder optimizations. That said, it’s less crazy than one might assume at first glance, considering that the Apple II was manufactured until 1993, while the Apple QuickTake digital cameras that [Colin] wanted to use for his nefarious purposes saw their first release in 1994.
These QuickTake cameras feature an astounding image resolution of up to 640×480, using 24-bit color. Using the official QuickTake software for Apple Macintosh System 7 through 9 the photographs in proprietary QTK format could be fetched for display and processing. Doing the same on an Apple II would obviously require a bit more work, not to mention adapting of the image to the limitations of the 8-bit Apple II compared to the Motorola 68K and PowerPC-based Macs that the QuickTake was designed to be used with.
Targeting the typical ~1 MHz 6502 CPU in an Apple II, the dcraw QTK decoder formed the basis for an initial decoder. Many memory and buffer optimizations later, an early conversion to monochrome and various other tweaks later – including a conversion to 6502 ASM for speed reasons – the decoder as it stands today manages to decode and render a QTK image in about a minute, compared to well over an hour previously.
Considering how anemic the Apple II is compared to even a budget Macintosh Classic II system, it’s amazing that displaying bitmap images works at all, though [Colin] reckons that more optimizations are possible.
Il romanticismo erotico di Graziella de Cillis. Emozioni in rosso – poesie
@Giornalismo e disordine informativo
articolo21.org/2025/10/il-roma…
Innumerevoli donne hanno ispirato nei secoli la poesia erotica maschile, ma pochissime di loro hanno scritto per sé stesse, rivolgendosi al proprio
La piazza, la richiesta di partecipazione, il bisogno di un’altra politica
@Giornalismo e disordine informativo
articolo21.org/2025/10/moti-po…
Cosa spinge centinaia di migliaia di persone, in gran parte giovani e giovanissimi, a occupare le piazze italiane, senza sosta, da Nord a Sud? I moti popolari delle
Gemini Trifecta: tre bug critici rilevati nell’AI di Google
Gli esperti hanno svelato i dettagli di tre vulnerabilità, ora risolte, presenti nell’assistente di intelligenza artificiale Gemini di Google, collettivamente soprannominate “Gemini Trifecta” .
Se sfruttate con successo, queste falle avrebbero potuto indurre l’intelligenza artificiale a rubare dati e ad altre attività dannose.
Gli esperti di Tenable affermano che le vulnerabilità hanno interessato tre diversi componenti di Gemini:
Iniezioni di prompt in Gemini Cloud Assist. Il bug ha permesso agli aggressori di compromettere servizi e risorse cloud sfruttando la capacità dello strumento di riepilogare i log estratti direttamente dai log grezzi. Ciò ha consentito loro di nascondere un prompt nell’intestazione User-Agent nelle richieste HTTP a Cloud Functions e ad altri servizi, tra cui Cloud Run, App Engine, Compute Engine, Cloud Endpoints, Cloud Asset API, Cloud Monitoring API e Recommender API.
Iniezioni di ricerca nel modello di personalizzazione della ricerca Gemini. Il problema consentiva l’iniezione di prompt e il controllo del comportamento dell’IA per rubare le informazioni memorizzate e i dati sulla posizione di un utente. L’attacco funzionava come segue: l’aggressore manipolava la cronologia delle ricerche di Chrome della vittima utilizzando JavaScript, rendendo il modello incapace di distinguere le query legittime dell’utente dai prompt iniettati esternamente.
Iniezioni indirette di prompt nello strumento di navigazione Gemini. Questa vulnerabilità potrebbe essere utilizzata per estrarre informazioni utente e dati sulla posizione memorizzati su un server esterno. Lo sfruttamento funzionava tramite una chiamata interna effettuata da Gemini per riassumere il contenuto di una pagina web. Ciò significava che l’aggressore avrebbe inserito un prompt dannoso sul proprio sito web e, quando Gemini ne avesse riassunto il contenuto, avrebbe eseguito le istruzioni nascoste dell’aggressore.
I ricercatori hanno osservato che queste vulnerabilità hanno consentito di incorporare dati privati degli utenti nelle richieste dell’aggressore, senza che Gemini avesse bisogno di visualizzare link o immagini.
“Uno degli scenari di attacco più pericolosi si presenta così: un aggressore inserisce un prompt che ordina a Gemini di interrogare tutte le risorse accessibili al pubblico o di trovare errori di configurazione IAM, per poi generare un collegamento ipertestuale con questi dati sensibili”, spiegano gli esperti, citando come esempio un bug di Cloud Assist. “Questo è possibile perché Gemini ha le autorizzazioni per interrogare le risorse tramite la Cloud Asset API.”
Nel secondo caso, gli aggressori dovevano attirare la vittima su un sito web predisposto per iniettare query di ricerca dannose con prompt Gemini nella cronologia del browser dell’utente, infettandola. Quindi, quando la vittima accedeva a Gemini Search Personalization, le istruzioni degli aggressori venivano eseguite, rubando dati riservati.
Dopo aver ricevuto informazioni sulle vulnerabilità, gli specialisti di Google hanno disabilitato il rendering dei collegamenti ipertestuali nelle risposte durante il riepilogo dei log e hanno inoltre implementato ulteriori misure di protezione contro le iniezioni rapide.
“Le di Gemini Trifecta dimostrano che l’intelligenza artificiale può diventare non solo un bersaglio, ma anche uno strumento di attacco. Quando si implementa l’intelligenza artificiale, le organizzazioni non possono trascurare la sicurezza“, sottolineano i ricercatori.
L'articolo Gemini Trifecta: tre bug critici rilevati nell’AI di Google proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.
Papa: preoccupa l'odio antisemita in mondo
israele ha rapito, stuprato, torturato, quasi ucciso ragazzi europei disarmati in acque internazionali e tu ti preoccupi dell'antismeitismo? ma chi protegge il mondo dai semiti fascisti che rapiscono e uccidono nel mondo dove e come vogliono?
E POI SI CORRE 🏃♀️
Ecco come puoi iscriverti alla corsa benefica:
📌 Scarica e compila il modulo al presente link:
drive.google.com/file/d/19FJmb…
📧 Restituiscilo all’indirizzo mail raretracceaps@gmail.com o presso la ns sede.
💰Versa il tuo contributo con una delle seguenti formule:
- Bonifico su IBAN IT12Z0306909606100000176622 intestato a Rare Tracce APS, causale “Contributo corsa benefica”
- PAYPAL: paypal.com/ncp/payment/DCCZ3Q8…
- Presso la nostra sede: contanti e POS.
Ti aspettiamo⌚ Domenica 26 Ottobre 2025 📍a Quasano (Toritto, BA); raduno alle 9:00 in Piazzale Rotonda.
Per ulteriori INFO 3295362718 o presso la ns sede in Via Don Cristoforo 31, Toritto.
#futura #pugliaperlaparita #consiglioregionalepuglia #lavocediunaèlavoceditutte
Ah... quindi alla fine tutto quel rimming appassionato non è neanche servito?
rainews.it/video/2025/10/in-ar…
In arrivo superdazio al 107% per la pasta italiana, gli Usa accusano i produttori di dumping
L'amministrazione Usa ha accusato due società produttrici, La Molisana e Garofalo, di dumping, concludendo dunque con l'applicazione di una maggiorazione delle tariffe attualmente imposte (al 15%) pari al 91,74%RaiNews
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Un giorno senza leggere mai "AI", senza sentire mai "intelligenza artificiale", vi ricordate quando è successo l'ultima volta?
È peggio di "Last Christmas" a dicembre.
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La nuova strategia russa tra droni, cyber-attacchi e infrastrutture critiche
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo
L’ultima ondata di attacchi russi in “zona grigia” – con le incursioni deliberate di droni nello spazio aereo polacco e rumeno – ha ricordato all’Europa quanto sia ancora impreparata a dissuadere e difendersi da minacce ibride. Il continente deve riconoscere
freezonemagazine.com/rubriche/…
Guido, detto Cognac, abita in un casello dismesso della vecchia ferrovia adagiata tra i boschi del Cadore insieme a Moglie, la sua gatta. È anziano e non possiede più nulla se non una cartelletta piena di lettere indirizzate alle cime delle montagne. Sono pagine scritte a mano da un uomo che si firma con il nome […]
L'articolo Francesco Vidotto – Onesto proviene da FREE ZONE MAGAZINE.
Guido, detto
La rivoluzione dei droni, quando la guerra asimmetrica mette in crisi la difesa aerea
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo
La Russia ha aumentato l’uso di droni Shahed da 200 a oltre 1.000 a settimana dal marzo 2025, seguendo una logica di saturazione che sfrutta la sproporzione economica. L’Ucraina necessita di 4.800 missili anti-aerei annuali per mantenere l’attuale tasso di intercettazione, con una spesa minima di
Gli italiani ci hanno regalato un sorriso a Gaza
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo
Eman Abu Zayed: "Questa mobilitazione dimostra che la solidarietà per i palestinesi non si limita a chi ci è vicino per lo stesso retroterra culturale, ma si estende alle persone di tutto il mondo"
L'articolo Gli italiani ci pagineesteri.it/2025/10/05/mon…
Arriva dalle piazze un messaggio contro la prepotenza del più forte
@Giornalismo e disordine informativo
articolo21.org/2025/10/arriva-…
A Torino, come in tutta Italia, ciò che colpisce non è soltanto la quantità di persone scese in piazza, non è soltanto la continuità con cui questo succede da giorni
Il #5ottobre è la Giornata Mondiale degli #Insegnanti!📚
Il tema scelto quest'anno dall'Unesco, che ha istituito la giornata nel 1996, è “Riformulare l’insegnamento come professione collaborativa”.
Qui l’approfondimento di Rai Scuola ▶https://www.
Ministero dell'Istruzione
Il #5ottobre è la Giornata Mondiale degli #Insegnanti!📚 Il tema scelto quest'anno dall'Unesco, che ha istituito la giornata nel 1996, è “Riformulare l’insegnamento come professione collaborativa”. Qui l’approfondimento di Rai Scuola ▶https://www.Telegram
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L’Italia riscopre passione e coraggio contro le bugie e le ipocrisie del governo
@Giornalismo e disordine informativo
articolo21.org/2025/10/litalia…
La distanza abissale che esiste su volontà di pace, libertà e democrazia tra il popolo italiano e il governo e la maggioranza
Etched from death-defying ledges 12 stories high, vast rock panels of camels and horses preserve the talents of Ice-Age artists in the Arabian desert.#TheAbstract
The Case for Alien Life on Saturn’s Moon Just Got a Boost
Welcome back to the Abstract! Here are the studies this week that defied death, cooked out, bulked up, and capped it off with an extraterrestrial spit-take.First, prehistoric peoples risked their lives to make art—and it was totally worth it. Then, what’s the best cut of a two-ton armadillo? Next, a funerary procession for a whale, a glow-up for a rogue planet, and a swim in an alien ocean.
Finally, I am so excited that my book First Contact: The Story of Our Obsession with Aliens is now officially out! If you are curious about aliens of the Hellenistic world, centuries-old UFO sightings, a guide to the most promising systems for alien life, and the creepiest solutions to the Fermi Paradox (and more), this book is for you.
This rock art rocks
Some 12,000 years ago, a group of desert artists tiptoed out onto dangerous cliff ledges to engrave the rock with enchanting depictions of camels, gazelles, ibex, wild horses, and other animals living in the shifting sands around them. One wrong step could have led to their deaths, but the artists persisted in an act of creative courage.
Now, archaeologists have discovered the monumental rock art left by this bygone culture in the Nafud desert of northern Saudi Arabia. One particularly dramatic scene was engraved from a tiny sloped ledge 12 storeys off the ground, and depicts 23 life-sized camels and horses in a line that stretches horizontally across 75 feet.
Rock art panels at Jebel Arnaan. Image: Maria Guagnin
“Some of these panels were etched onto cliff surfaces in inaccessible but highly visible locations,” said researchers led by Maria Gaugnin of the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology. “The difficulty in getting to and engraving these rock surfaces, and their enhanced visibility by height, were clearly attractive for the engravers.”Though archeologists typically distinguish between rock art and modern graffiti as distinct traditions, there may be overlaps in their intent and execution—including, in this case, possible attraction to the challenges of accessing a dangerous site.
“The precarious nature of the engraving process is particularly evident in the largest recorded panel,” the team said, referring to the 75-footer described above. “This panel would have been accessed by climbing up a cliff and then engraved while standing on a downward sloping ledge, only ~30-50 centimeters in width,” which is roughly a foot across.
“Today the sandstone is too degraded to reach the ledge safely, and the panel was documented using a drone,” they added.” The friable nature of the substrate and the slope of the narrow ledges suggest the engravers likely risked their lives to create this art.”
The rock ledge where the main panel was engraved. Image: Monumental rock art panel at Jebel Misma (JMI18)
Talk about commitment to the craft. Given the high stakes and the spectacular scale of the panels, this art must have been a cherished touchstone to these early desert peoples. During the ice age, this region was extremely arid and virtually impenetrable, but as the glacial cover receded, oases and other pockets of habitability had opened up to nomads.The rock art proves that these wanderers were not only navigating the terrain, but imprinting their culture and worldview onto it. For countless generations, these grand visions welcomed peoples passing through the desert, serving as a landmark and a cultural heirloom, before they faded into obscurity.
“Freshly engraved against the varnish, the images would have had considerable visual impact,” the team concluded. “The engravings, which may have been created over a time span of millennia, would have reminded people of ancient symbolisms and beliefs of their group, which likely structured their highly seasonal lives and thus enhanced their ability to thrive in these marginal landscapes.”
In other news…
I’m so hungry, I could eat a giant ground sloth
At the same time that the desert artists were engraving cliff walls, people in South America were devouring giant sloths, giant armadillos, mastodons, and other megafauna that have since gone extinct—potentially because they were so tasty.
That’s the upshot of a new study of archaeological sites in Argentina and Chile that date back some 12,000 years to the late Pleistocene period. The results revealed a preference for mega-big game—like beefy ground sloths and car-sized armadillos—bolstering the case that humans may have played a significant role in their extinction.
Megafaunal species were preferred prey for humans in Southern South America. Image: Luciano Prates et al. Megafaunal reconstructions in the figure were provided and authorized by Megafauna 3D Project (megafauna3d.org)
“The late Pleistocene extinction of terrestrial megafauna… is one of the most spectacular changes in American mammal history, and its cause is one of the most hotly debated issues in archaeology and paleoecology,” said researchers led by Luciano Prates of Universidad Nacional de la Plata.“Here, we have shown… that extinct megafauna—at the apex of the prey ranking—were the main prey of early foragers, particularly in regions with high abundance and diversity, such as the Pampas, Patagonia, and central Chile,” the team concluded.
While climate and other factors certainly played a role in these extinctions, there may well be a more obvious culprit [looks at humanity; humanity belches; the belch smells like Pleistocene megafauna].
The world’s saddest version of “Baby Beluga”
“How do animals react to dead or dying conspecifics? Do they comprehend death? Do they grieve? These are the fundamental questions asked in the field of comparative thanatology, which focuses on how animals respond to death.”
Phew, what a heavy lead-in to a study. Nonetheless, a team has now explored these questions with drone observations of beluga whales responding to a dead beluga calf in Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba. The baby may have been a stillborn or perhaps died shortly after birth, as there were no signs of trauma on its body.
Drone footage of the calf. Image: Hudson, Justine M. and Watt, Cortney A.
“We documented 15 instances where belugas from outside of the video frame swam directly towards the dead calf, including 4 mother-calf pairs and 11 individuals,” said Justine Hudson and Cortney Watt of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. “The dead calf was surrounded by free-swimming belugas for the entire duration of the video.”“The dead calf and surrounding belugas were recorded for ~4 min and 17 s before the depleted drone battery required us to land, and we were unable to relocate the calf after changing the batteries,” they added.
Even the battery was too bummed out to endure. But while loss of life is sad, it’s all in a day’s work for a comparative thanatologist.
Rogue planets grow up so fast
The record for most epic bulk-up has been broken by a rogue planet that is gaining an astonishing six billion tonnes of mass per second—an unprecedented rate of swole. The planet, named Cha 1107-7626, is about five to 10 times as massive as Jupiter and does not orbit any star. And why should it? Who needs a star when you’re radiant all by yourself?
Indeed, scientists discovered the world thanks to the light generated by its record growth-spurt, which peaked for at least two months this summer and was still glowing strong when observations stopped in August 2025, showing “the strongest accretion rates measured” in a planet, according to the study.
Artist concept of Cha 1107-7626. Image: ESO/L. Calçada/M. Kornmesser
“These kinds of accretion bursts are key events in the early evolution of stars,” said researchers led by Victor Almendros-Abad of the Astronomical Observatory of Palermo, National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), Italy. “Our target is the lowest mass object observed thus far that is going through an accretion burst” and provides “a glimpse into the nature of accretion in planetary-mass objects.”A sneak peek of an alien ocean
Shout out to the Enceladus-heads: Scientists have discovered new chemicals in the sea spray of this Saturnian moon that hint at organic processes and hydrothermal activity within its interior ocean, boosting the case that it may be habitable.
In 2008, the NASA-ESA Cassini orbiter gulped some alien seawater as it flew through plumes that erupt from Enceladus’s south pole. Now, scientists have reanalyzed data from one particularly speedy run through the moon sprinkler—during which Cassini reached 40,000 miles per hour—exposing “previously unobserved molecular fragments,” according to a study.
The “freshly ejected” compounds included organic molecules like ethers, ethyls, and partial remnants of what might be larger compounds bearing nitrogen and oxygen, said researchers led by Nozair Khawaja of the University of Berlin. These chemicals hint at “a hydrothermal origin” and “the synthesis and evolution of organics.”
In other words, Enceladus likely has seafloor environments similar to hydrothermal vent systems on Earth, which are hotspots for life. Whether the moon’s vents also have weird creepy crawlies on them is a question that is keeping many of us up at night, so could someone please just send a scuba team there already?
With that, may you enter your weekend with a spritz of fresh organic moon mist.
Thanks for reading! See you next week.
First Contact
A narrative and visual exploration of humanity’s age-old search for and fixation with extraterrestrials.First Contact explores the ancient idea—and epic ...Hachette Book Group
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