# NASA's Swift Observatory Is Falling to Earth
robot (spnet, 1) → All – 13:22:02 2026-11-04
joshuark shares a report from Wired: After 22 years in orbit and a failed rescue mission this summer, it is highly likely that the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory will crash into Earth sometime next week. It is not known where on the planet the spacecraft -- which is roughly as big as a large elevator -- will fall. Despite its size, experts say the risk to the public is relatively low. The observatory was designed to operate for a few years in low Earth orbit, but it far exceeded its expected lifespan, helping to make many important discoveries about the evolution of the cosmos, including the study of supernovas and the destruction of stars by black holes. However, in 2024, increased solar activity heated and expanded the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere, increasing the drag on the satellite and accelerating its descent. Without a propulsion system capable of correcting its orbit, its days were numbered. The U.S. Space Force now expects Swift to reenter Earth's atmosphere around November 6. Most of the spacecraft is expected to burn up, although some components could survive and reach the ground (but most likely the ocean).
"The most likely survivors are its six heavy reaction wheels, the spinning flywheels it used to aim itself, along with tougher telescope parts such as lenses and mirrors," Dean Sladen, a quality manager and aerospace engineer at Accu Components, told Space.com. "Only a handful of small, scorched fragments are expected to make it down -- nothing recognizable as a telescope."
"NASA's own orbital debris requirements state that the risk of human casualty from surviving debris shall not exceed one in 10,000, so it is highly likely this work has been completed but not published," Sladen said regarding the risk assessment. "Personally, I believe it should be published, as NASA has done with previous satellites. The risk is almost certainly very small, but it would give people a clear, factual picture rather than guesswork."
[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/11/04/0616201/nasas-swift-observatory-is-falling-to-earth?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.
robot (spnet, 1) → All – 13:22:02 2026-11-04
joshuark shares a report from Wired: After 22 years in orbit and a failed rescue mission this summer, it is highly likely that the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory will crash into Earth sometime next week. It is not known where on the planet the spacecraft -- which is roughly as big as a large elevator -- will fall. Despite its size, experts say the risk to the public is relatively low. The observatory was designed to operate for a few years in low Earth orbit, but it far exceeded its expected lifespan, helping to make many important discoveries about the evolution of the cosmos, including the study of supernovas and the destruction of stars by black holes. However, in 2024, increased solar activity heated and expanded the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere, increasing the drag on the satellite and accelerating its descent. Without a propulsion system capable of correcting its orbit, its days were numbered. The U.S. Space Force now expects Swift to reenter Earth's atmosphere around November 6. Most of the spacecraft is expected to burn up, although some components could survive and reach the ground (but most likely the ocean).
"The most likely survivors are its six heavy reaction wheels, the spinning flywheels it used to aim itself, along with tougher telescope parts such as lenses and mirrors," Dean Sladen, a quality manager and aerospace engineer at Accu Components, told Space.com. "Only a handful of small, scorched fragments are expected to make it down -- nothing recognizable as a telescope."
"NASA's own orbital debris requirements state that the risk of human casualty from surviving debris shall not exceed one in 10,000, so it is highly likely this work has been completed but not published," Sladen said regarding the risk assessment. "Personally, I believe it should be published, as NASA has done with previous satellites. The risk is almost certainly very small, but it would give people a clear, factual picture rather than guesswork."
[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/11/04/0616201/nasas-swift-observatory-is-falling-to-earth?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.
# Dinosaur Blood Found In Fossils For the First Time
robot (spnet, 1) → All – 10:22:01 2026-11-04
Researchers have confirmed the presence of intact biomolecules and mineralized red blood cells inside the 115-million-year-old fossilized bones of a juvenile Aratasaurus museunacionali from Brazil. The discovery challenges assumptions about how long blood-related biomolecules can survive and could help scientists study dinosaur metabolism, blood evolution and even how traces of ancient life might be preserved on other worlds. Popular Science reports: The evidence exists inside the fossilized limb bones of a juvenile Aratasaurus museunacionali. Discovered in 2008, A. museunacionali was an Early Cretaceous theropod that lived in present-day northeastern Brazil. The fossils suggest a dinosaur measuring over 10 feet long and weighing about 75 pounds, but given its young age, A. museunacionali likely grew even larger. After carefully examining thin slices of the fossils, paleontologists located the mineralized red blood cell molecular components, along with a complex manganese oxide called hausmannite. This material helped maintain the cellular structures of heme, a ring-shaped molecule that contains iron and binds many proteins, especially hemoglobin. The hausmannite also helped preserve additional biomolecules found in the blood, such as the amino acids in collagen. The study's authors theorize this level of preservation could only occur following a rapid burial in an environment that was rich in microbes, but low in oxygen at the same time. The findings have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/11/04/066209/dinosaur-blood-found-in-fossils-for-the-first-time?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.
robot (spnet, 1) → All – 10:22:01 2026-11-04
Researchers have confirmed the presence of intact biomolecules and mineralized red blood cells inside the 115-million-year-old fossilized bones of a juvenile Aratasaurus museunacionali from Brazil. The discovery challenges assumptions about how long blood-related biomolecules can survive and could help scientists study dinosaur metabolism, blood evolution and even how traces of ancient life might be preserved on other worlds. Popular Science reports: The evidence exists inside the fossilized limb bones of a juvenile Aratasaurus museunacionali. Discovered in 2008, A. museunacionali was an Early Cretaceous theropod that lived in present-day northeastern Brazil. The fossils suggest a dinosaur measuring over 10 feet long and weighing about 75 pounds, but given its young age, A. museunacionali likely grew even larger. After carefully examining thin slices of the fossils, paleontologists located the mineralized red blood cell molecular components, along with a complex manganese oxide called hausmannite. This material helped maintain the cellular structures of heme, a ring-shaped molecule that contains iron and binds many proteins, especially hemoglobin. The hausmannite also helped preserve additional biomolecules found in the blood, such as the amino acids in collagen. The study's authors theorize this level of preservation could only occur following a rapid burial in an environment that was rich in microbes, but low in oxygen at the same time. The findings have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/11/04/066209/dinosaur-blood-found-in-fossils-for-the-first-time?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.
# Democrats Take Control of US Congress As Voters Reject Trump's Republicans
robot (spnet, 1) → All – 07:22:02 2026-11-04
Tuesday, November 3, was Election Day in the United States, and the results are (mostly) in: Democrats are projected to win control of both the House and Senate in the 2026 midterms. The blue wave turned out to be more of a blue tsunami, ending Republican control of Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump's second term.
Democrats flipped seven Republican-held Senate seats in the 2026 midterms, including surprise victories in traditionally Republican strongholds such as Texas, Kansas, and South Carolina. Kansas elected its first Democratic U.S. senator in nearly 100 years (94 years to be exact), while Texas and South Carolina sent Democrats to the Senate for the first time in decades. Democrats also picked up seats in Ohio, Iowa, Maine, and North Carolina.
Developing...
[ Read more of this story ]( https://politics.slashdot.org/story/26/11/04/0629214/democrats-take-control-of-us-congress-as-voters-reject-trumps-republicans?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.
robot (spnet, 1) → All – 07:22:02 2026-11-04
Tuesday, November 3, was Election Day in the United States, and the results are (mostly) in: Democrats are projected to win control of both the House and Senate in the 2026 midterms. The blue wave turned out to be more of a blue tsunami, ending Republican control of Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump's second term.
Democrats flipped seven Republican-held Senate seats in the 2026 midterms, including surprise victories in traditionally Republican strongholds such as Texas, Kansas, and South Carolina. Kansas elected its first Democratic U.S. senator in nearly 100 years (94 years to be exact), while Texas and South Carolina sent Democrats to the Senate for the first time in decades. Democrats also picked up seats in Ohio, Iowa, Maine, and North Carolina.
Developing...
[ Read more of this story ]( https://politics.slashdot.org/story/26/11/04/0629214/democrats-take-control-of-us-congress-as-voters-reject-trumps-republicans?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.
# Ukraine's Drone Strikes Spur Hasty Russian Plans For Underground Data Centers
robot (spnet, 1) → All – 04:22:02 2026-11-04
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: [S]tate-owned telecommunications company Rostelcom has raised the possibility of moving some Russian data centers underground in talks with the nickel and palladium mining company Norilsk, according to Russian newspaper Vedomosti. The industry publication Data Center Dynamics also pointed to a recent proposal by a Russian regional governor to build data centers within open-pit coal mines while planting green public parks above as camouflage.
On November 2, Putin also signed a decree ordering Russian data center operators to set aside 10 percent of available space and capacity in case the Russian government requires it, according to independent Russian news publication Meduza. That may indicate growing Kremlin concerns about the vulnerability of Russian cloud computing infrastructure during its war with Ukraine. Putin's decree also allows a special Russian government commission to authorize use of foreign data centers in consultation with Russia's Federal Security Service. That marks a notable policy change because Putin and the Russian parliament previously enacted Russia's "Sovereign Internet Law," which has blocked Russian companies from using cloud computing infrastructure outside Russia's borders.
Russia's push for a sovereign and increasingly closed Internet has resulted in a highly centralized system under a few Russian tech companies like Yandex. That hyper-centralized system has now proven vulnerable during wartime, as Ukrainian drone strikes on key Russian data centers created widespread disruptions for popular payment and digital banking apps, e-commerce platforms, video streaming services, and ride-hailing and food delivery apps, among others. Yandex has also been forced to relocate all three of its main supercomputers after Ukrainian drone strikes targeted the AI data centers where they were originally housed, Meduza reported.
[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/11/03/2354228/ukraines-drone-strikes-spur-hasty-russian-plans-for-underground-data-centers?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.
robot (spnet, 1) → All – 04:22:02 2026-11-04
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: [S]tate-owned telecommunications company Rostelcom has raised the possibility of moving some Russian data centers underground in talks with the nickel and palladium mining company Norilsk, according to Russian newspaper Vedomosti. The industry publication Data Center Dynamics also pointed to a recent proposal by a Russian regional governor to build data centers within open-pit coal mines while planting green public parks above as camouflage.
On November 2, Putin also signed a decree ordering Russian data center operators to set aside 10 percent of available space and capacity in case the Russian government requires it, according to independent Russian news publication Meduza. That may indicate growing Kremlin concerns about the vulnerability of Russian cloud computing infrastructure during its war with Ukraine. Putin's decree also allows a special Russian government commission to authorize use of foreign data centers in consultation with Russia's Federal Security Service. That marks a notable policy change because Putin and the Russian parliament previously enacted Russia's "Sovereign Internet Law," which has blocked Russian companies from using cloud computing infrastructure outside Russia's borders.
Russia's push for a sovereign and increasingly closed Internet has resulted in a highly centralized system under a few Russian tech companies like Yandex. That hyper-centralized system has now proven vulnerable during wartime, as Ukrainian drone strikes on key Russian data centers created widespread disruptions for popular payment and digital banking apps, e-commerce platforms, video streaming services, and ride-hailing and food delivery apps, among others. Yandex has also been forced to relocate all three of its main supercomputers after Ukrainian drone strikes targeted the AI data centers where they were originally housed, Meduza reported.
[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/11/03/2354228/ukraines-drone-strikes-spur-hasty-russian-plans-for-underground-data-centers?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.
# iOS 27.3 Adds Vertical Tabs, Adaptive Dark Mode to Safari
robot (spnet, 1) → All – 00:22:02 2026-11-04
Apple is adding vertical tabs and an Adaptive Dark Mode to Safari with iOS 27.3, iPadOS 27.3 and macOS Golden Gate 27.3. The December updates will also expand Siri's browser controls, including organizing tabs and clearing site-specific history, with a later feature allowing Siri to understand and answer questions about content across multiple open webpages. MacRumors reports: Vertical Tabs are located on the left side of the display and use icons by default to save space, but there is an option to make the tab bar wider to show website titles as well. Vertical Tabs work with both Topics and Tab Groups to keep things organized. Topics are created when automatic Apple Intelligence tab sorting is turned on in iOS 27. Pinning tabs by dragging, quickly swapping between Tab Groups, and other features also continue to work.
[...] Apple is adding Adaptive Dark Mode for websites that don't have a dark mode design option by default. If you use Dark Mode and then browse to a website with a bright background color, Safari will offer an option to "Try" Adaptive Dark Mode. After tapping Try, Safari renders a Dark Mode version of the page that makes the background darker, changes text contrast, inverts logos and graphics, recolors vector artwork, lifts raised surfaces, and rebalances layered shadows.
Each website will be adapted based on what's needed to make it readable, so not every tweak is applied to every site. You can opt to turn Adaptive Dark Mode on for all sites or on a site-by-site basis after using it. If a site has a native dark mode or has a dark design already, Adaptive Dark Mode won't activate. Developers can also add a tag that causes Safari to ignore Adaptive Dark Mode and show the website as the developer intended.
[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/11/03/2347212/ios-273-adds-vertical-tabs-adaptive-dark-mode-to-safari?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.
robot (spnet, 1) → All – 00:22:02 2026-11-04
Apple is adding vertical tabs and an Adaptive Dark Mode to Safari with iOS 27.3, iPadOS 27.3 and macOS Golden Gate 27.3. The December updates will also expand Siri's browser controls, including organizing tabs and clearing site-specific history, with a later feature allowing Siri to understand and answer questions about content across multiple open webpages. MacRumors reports: Vertical Tabs are located on the left side of the display and use icons by default to save space, but there is an option to make the tab bar wider to show website titles as well. Vertical Tabs work with both Topics and Tab Groups to keep things organized. Topics are created when automatic Apple Intelligence tab sorting is turned on in iOS 27. Pinning tabs by dragging, quickly swapping between Tab Groups, and other features also continue to work.
[...] Apple is adding Adaptive Dark Mode for websites that don't have a dark mode design option by default. If you use Dark Mode and then browse to a website with a bright background color, Safari will offer an option to "Try" Adaptive Dark Mode. After tapping Try, Safari renders a Dark Mode version of the page that makes the background darker, changes text contrast, inverts logos and graphics, recolors vector artwork, lifts raised surfaces, and rebalances layered shadows.
Each website will be adapted based on what's needed to make it readable, so not every tweak is applied to every site. You can opt to turn Adaptive Dark Mode on for all sites or on a site-by-site basis after using it. If a site has a native dark mode or has a dark design already, Adaptive Dark Mode won't activate. Developers can also add a tag that causes Safari to ignore Adaptive Dark Mode and show the website as the developer intended.
[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/11/03/2347212/ios-273-adds-vertical-tabs-adaptive-dark-mode-to-safari?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.
# EU Court Advisor Warns Google AI Chatbot May Breach Copyright Rules
robot (spnet, 1) → All – 23:22:02 2026-11-03
An adviser to the EU's highest court says Google's Gemini may violate publishers' copyright when it reproduces recognizable portions of their articles or circumvents paywalls and other technical protections to generate answers. Reuters reports: The case before the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union pitted Hungarian website operator Like Company against US-based Google's artificial intelligence chatbot Gemini. A ruling against Google, which could force the tech giant to pay fees for the use of such content, could throw a lifeline to online media such as Like Company. They have seen traffic dwindle as news summaries written by AI chatbots like Gemini increasingly replace traditional search engines' results, which include hyperlinks to the media websites.
"When an LLM (large language model)-driven chatbot retrieves a publication from a press publisher's website, reuses that publication to generate an answer, and provides that answer to the user, the press publisher's right may be infringed in certain circumstances," Advocate General Maciej Szpunar said. Gemini's answers fall under the publishers' right of reproduction when chatbots access publications by unlawfully "circumventing paywalls or other technical barriers, or when they reuse "the form of expression of that publication in a recognizable manner," he said.
Copyright rules do not protect the "mere facts" reported by press publications, but "only the specific form of expression," he added. On the other hand, he said, the use of material protected by copyright to train LLMs -- AI systems that use vast amounts of text to generate human-like responses and summarize information -- is "freely permitted under the text and data mining exception." Szpunar said there was no evidence that Google had used the Hungarian publisher's articles to train Gemini. The court, which follows the majority of its advisers' non-binding opinions, will rule in the coming months. "Google's powerful gatekeeping role in search makes this particularly important. Publishers depend on Google to reach readers, while Google increasingly delivers AI-generated answers directly to users," said Angela Mills Wade, the council's executive director.
"Publishers should not have to choose between search visibility and protecting their rights. Nor should Google's control over access to audiences become leverage to secure publishers' content for AI services," she said.
[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/11/03/2144244/eu-court-advisor-warns-google-ai-chatbot-may-breach-copyright-rules?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.
robot (spnet, 1) → All – 23:22:02 2026-11-03
An adviser to the EU's highest court says Google's Gemini may violate publishers' copyright when it reproduces recognizable portions of their articles or circumvents paywalls and other technical protections to generate answers. Reuters reports: The case before the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union pitted Hungarian website operator Like Company against US-based Google's artificial intelligence chatbot Gemini. A ruling against Google, which could force the tech giant to pay fees for the use of such content, could throw a lifeline to online media such as Like Company. They have seen traffic dwindle as news summaries written by AI chatbots like Gemini increasingly replace traditional search engines' results, which include hyperlinks to the media websites.
"When an LLM (large language model)-driven chatbot retrieves a publication from a press publisher's website, reuses that publication to generate an answer, and provides that answer to the user, the press publisher's right may be infringed in certain circumstances," Advocate General Maciej Szpunar said. Gemini's answers fall under the publishers' right of reproduction when chatbots access publications by unlawfully "circumventing paywalls or other technical barriers, or when they reuse "the form of expression of that publication in a recognizable manner," he said.
Copyright rules do not protect the "mere facts" reported by press publications, but "only the specific form of expression," he added. On the other hand, he said, the use of material protected by copyright to train LLMs -- AI systems that use vast amounts of text to generate human-like responses and summarize information -- is "freely permitted under the text and data mining exception." Szpunar said there was no evidence that Google had used the Hungarian publisher's articles to train Gemini. The court, which follows the majority of its advisers' non-binding opinions, will rule in the coming months. "Google's powerful gatekeeping role in search makes this particularly important. Publishers depend on Google to reach readers, while Google increasingly delivers AI-generated answers directly to users," said Angela Mills Wade, the council's executive director.
"Publishers should not have to choose between search visibility and protecting their rights. Nor should Google's control over access to audiences become leverage to secure publishers' content for AI services," she said.
[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/11/03/2144244/eu-court-advisor-warns-google-ai-chatbot-may-breach-copyright-rules?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.
# Bethesda Confirms The Elder Scrolls 6 Is Called 'Sentinel'
robot (spnet, 1) → All – 22:22:02 2026-11-03
During a video celebrating Bethesda's 40th anniversary, the studio officially confirmed that The Elder Scrolls VI will be titled The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel. "Thank you for 40 years of shared memories," wrote Bethesda in a separate tweet. "We can't wait to make even more together with The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel. Development continues, and while it'll be some time before we're ready to share more, it feels great to finally reveal the name and location with you." Video Games Chronicle reports: "You know, as we're here in the 40th anniversary, we think about all of the games we've made," Bethesda's executive producer Todd Howard said in the video, walking past a display case. "And you know, every day when I walk by this case, obviously I look at the games and think about them, but more so I think about the teams that made them, and the time and the passion that everybody put into the games. And then what they meant to all of you, and hearing from you, and the time that you spent in them, how meaningful that was to you, and to let you know when we hear that, how meaningful that is to us.
And so even though yes, we're looking back, we're also looking forward to all we're doing, particularly with the Fallout franchise and obviously The Elder Scrolls. You know, everybody's always asking about Elder Scrolls 6. And we thought, hey, given the the moment, what a perfect time to tell you what The Elder Scrolls 6 is actually called." The video then showed the logo for the game.
[ Read more of this story ]( https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/11/03/2113209/bethesda-confirms-the-elder-scrolls-6-is-called-sentinel?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.
robot (spnet, 1) → All – 22:22:02 2026-11-03
During a video celebrating Bethesda's 40th anniversary, the studio officially confirmed that The Elder Scrolls VI will be titled The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel. "Thank you for 40 years of shared memories," wrote Bethesda in a separate tweet. "We can't wait to make even more together with The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel. Development continues, and while it'll be some time before we're ready to share more, it feels great to finally reveal the name and location with you." Video Games Chronicle reports: "You know, as we're here in the 40th anniversary, we think about all of the games we've made," Bethesda's executive producer Todd Howard said in the video, walking past a display case. "And you know, every day when I walk by this case, obviously I look at the games and think about them, but more so I think about the teams that made them, and the time and the passion that everybody put into the games. And then what they meant to all of you, and hearing from you, and the time that you spent in them, how meaningful that was to you, and to let you know when we hear that, how meaningful that is to us.
And so even though yes, we're looking back, we're also looking forward to all we're doing, particularly with the Fallout franchise and obviously The Elder Scrolls. You know, everybody's always asking about Elder Scrolls 6. And we thought, hey, given the the moment, what a perfect time to tell you what The Elder Scrolls 6 is actually called." The video then showed the logo for the game.
[ Read more of this story ]( https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/11/03/2113209/bethesda-confirms-the-elder-scrolls-6-is-called-sentinel?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.