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Garmin Emergency Autoland Has First Save
Dec. 23rd, 2025 03:30 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
slashdot_feed"Garmin's Collier Trophy award-winning Autonomi emergency Autoland, a system designed to safely land an aircraft in the event of pilot incapacitation, made its first real-world use and save on Saturday," writes Slashdot reader slipped_bit. AvBrief.com reports: Social media posts from flight tracking hobbyists reported a King Air 200 squawked 7700 about 2 p.m. local time today. The Autoland system was initiated and landed the aircraft at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport near Denver. A recording from LiveATC's feed of the airport's tower frequency includes a robotic female voice declaring a pilot incapacitation and the intention to land on Runway 30. The aircraft landed successfully and there have been no reports of injuries. The nature of the incapacitation and the condition of the pilot have not been released. VASAviation put together this nice animation of the event [here].
The aircraft, N479BR, was being operated by Buffalo River Outfitters from Aspen to Rocky Mountain Metropolitan. It's not clear how many people were on board. The system appeared to work flawlessly, and the controller at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan seemed to take it in stride, accommodating as many requests as he could before shutting down the airport for the landing.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Retail In The Holidays: When You Can’t Feel Your Heart… Or Your Toes!
Dec. 23rd, 2025 04:00 amnotalwaysright_feedRead Retail In The Holidays: When You Can’t Feel Your Heart… Or Your Toes!
It’s the week before Christmas, and I’m working in a store at one of those outdoor malls. Outside it’s -10°F with windchill, and inside our store, the heating is trying her merry best, but with the doors opening and closing all day, it means we’ve been sitting at about 48–49 degrees all day.
Read Retail In The Holidays: When You Can’t Feel Your Heart… Or Your Toes!
That cancelled 60 Minutes piece is up on Canadian TV
Dec. 23rd, 2025 12:11 amboingboing_feed
Bari Weiss apparently yanked a 60 Minutes piece on Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador's CECOT prison because it was not friendly enough to the Trump Administration. Somehow, the piece aired in Canada anyway.
There are links to downloaded versions of the show for folks who want to watch it that way. — Read the rest
The post That cancelled 60 Minutes piece is up on Canadian TV appeared first on Boing Boing.
Holiday Cheer In The Rear
Dec. 23rd, 2025 02:00 amnotalwaysright_feedRead Holiday Cheer In The Rear
Customer: "It's almost Christmas! Why do you have so little stock?!"
Coworker: "The answer is in your question, ma'am. Because it's so close to Christmas, we have low stock."
20 Mischievous Memes of Cats Causing Playtime Pandemonium
Dec. 22nd, 2025 05:00 pmicanhascheezburger_feedCats really don't ask for much when it comes to entertainment. Drop a toy on the floor and suddenly it becomes the main event. A ball rolling two feet might as well be an Olympic sport, and a string instantly turns into a personal mission. Everything else in the room stops mattering.
Playtime is a mix of focus and complete chaos. There's the intense stare, the careful crouch, and then the dramatic leap that sometimes misses by a mile. That never seems to bother them. Toys get smacked under furniture, dragged down hallways, or bunny-kicked like they personally caused a problem.
Eventually the excitement burns out. The toy is left exactly where it fell, usually in the middle of the floor. The cat collapses nearby, stretched out and breathing hard, clearly satisfied. Watching it all is a reminder that fun doesn't have to be complicated. Sometimes it's just a cat, a toy, and zero concern for dignity.
'Awkward': GOP Candidate Is Trump's Going The2nd ChoiceGoing The Distance'
Dec. 23rd, 2025 01:06 amcrooks_and_liars_feed
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman addressed whether it was "awkward" after President Donald Trump endorsed him as his second choice for New York governor.
During a Monday press conference, Blakeman expressed "respect" for Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) after she dropped out of the race for governor.
"The president endorsed you," one reporter noted. "Can you talk about that, and is it awkward that so many of the Republican leaders didn't initially support you, and now they are?"
"No, not at all, because most of the people who endorsed Elise did so before I got in the race," Blakeman insisted. "So people started to say, well, look, if this guy can win in a county with 110,000 more Democrats by 36,000 votes, maybe he's got the right message."
"[NY Governor] Kathy Hochul wants to talk about everything but her record," he added. "So I'm going to stay on target. I'm going to talk about my record. I'm going to talk about her record."
"People can compare the two records. And once they compare both records, I feel very confident that I'll be the next governor of the state of New York."
FCC Bans Foreign-Made Drones Over National Security, Spying Concerns
Dec. 23rd, 2025 01:40 amslashdot_feedThe FCC has banned approval of new foreign-made drones and components, citing "an unacceptable risk" to national security. The move will most heavily impact DJI but it "does not affect drones or drone components that are currently sold in the United States." Reuters reports: The tech was placed on the commission's "Covered List," barring DJI and other foreign drone manufacturers from receiving the FCC's approval to sell new drone models for import or sale in the U.S. In Monday's announcement, the agency said that the move "will reduce the risk of direct [drone] attacks and disruptions, unauthorized surveillance, sensitive data exfiltration and other [drone] threats to the homeland."
FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement that while drones offer the potential to boost public safety and the U.S.' posture on global innovation, "criminals, terrorists and hostile foreign actors have intensified their weaponization of these technologies, creating new and serious threats to our homeland."
The ruling comes as China hawks in Congress amplify warnings about the security risks of drones made by DJI, which accounts for more than 90% of the global market share. But efforts to crack down on Capitol Hill have been met with some pushback due to the potential impacts of curbing the drone usage on U.S. businesses and law enforcement. A wide variety of sectors, including construction, energy, agriculture and mining companies, as well as local police and fire departments across the country, deploy DJI-made drones.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Microsoft To Replace All C/C++ Code With Rust By 2030
Dec. 23rd, 2025 01:03 amslashdot_feedMicrosoft plans to eliminate all C and C++ code across its major codebases by 2030, replacing it with Rust using AI-assisted, large-scale refactoring. "My goal is to eliminate every line of C and C++ from Microsoft by 2030," Microsoft Distinguished Engineer Galen Hunt writes in a post on LinkedIn. "Our strategy is to combine AI and Algorithms to rewrite Microsoft's largest codebases. Our North Star is '1 engineer, 1 month, 1 million lines of code.' To accomplish this previously unimaginable task, we've built a powerful code processing infrastructure. Our algorithmic infrastructure creates a scalable graph over source code at scale. Our AI processing infrastructure then enables us to apply AI agents, guided by algorithms, to make code modifications at scale. The core of this infrastructure is already operating at scale on problems such as code understanding."
Hunt says he's looking to hire a Principal Software Engineer to help with this effort. "The purpose of this Principal Software Engineer role is to help us evolve and augment our infrastructure to enable translating Microsoft's largest C and C++ systems to Rust," writes Hunt. "A critical requirement for this role is experience building production quality systems-level code in Rust -- preferably at least 3 years of experience writing systems-level code in Rust. Compiler, database, or OS implementation experience is highly desired. While compiler implementation experience is not required to apply, the willingness to acquire that experience in our team is required."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Trump's personal pollster may find himself on the boss' naughty list
Dec. 23rd, 2025 01:01 amdailykos_feedPresident Donald Trump's own pollster released a survey finding that voters want Democrats to control Congress by a 7-point margin—a spread so large that it would cost Republicans the House and put the Senate in play.
The pollsters, Tony Fabrizio and Bob Ward, tucked the finding in a memo that advised Trump and the GOP to regulate artificial intelligence at the federal level in order to build electoral goodwill.
The memo claims that if Republicans protect kids from the potential harms of AI, it could help turn a loss in the 2026 midterms into a massive victory. That is obviously farcical, and informed ballot questions—such as the one the pollsters asked—are good at message testing but are not at all predictive. It’s a sure bet that regulating AI for kids is not what the 2026 election will hinge on, as most Americans are telling pollsters that it’s the economy and cost of living that are most important to them.
Yet nestled in the data from Trump’s pollsters is a finding that if the midterms were held today, 45% would vote for the Democratic nominee while 38% would choose a Republican. Among "swing voters," Democrats' margin expands to a whopping 15 points, with 37% saying they would vote for the Democratic candidate and just 22% choosing the Republican.
Those findings are dismal for the GOP.
A 7-point generic ballot spread is close to the 8.4-points Democrats won the 2018 midterms by—when Democrats gained 40 seats in the House and took back control of that chamber for the first time in nearly a decade.
If 2026's results are similar, it would be more than enough for Democrats to flip the three seats they need for a majority in the House, and would even put control of the Senate up for grabs.
The fact that Trump's own pollster sees such a big Democratic generic ballot lead is likely why Republicans are in panic mode about the midterms.
After terrible recent performances in blockbuster gubernatorial elections in November and equally bad performances in special elections across the country, Republican lawmakers are now heading for the exits in record numbers.
GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik decided next year's elections were looking so bad that she ended her doomed bid for New York governor on Friday and said she wasn't even going to seek reelection in her district, which Trump carried by more than 20 points.
“While we would have overwhelmingly won this primary, it is not an effective use of our time or your generous resources to spend the first half of next year in an unnecessary and protracted Republican primary, especially in a challenging state like New York,” Stefanik said of why she bowed out of the gubernatorial election she was almost certain to lose.
Related | 'We need to sound the alarm': GOP panics as election losses pile up
Even the Republican National Committee chair said things are bad, predicting his own party's demise.
“The chances are Republicans will go down and will go down hard," RNC Chair Joe Gruters said in a radio show appearance earlier this month.
Political handicappers agree.
“The Republican Party doesn’t do well in elections in which President Donald Trump is the focus. And by nature of his personality and being the incumbent president, the GOP is on track for that scenario to repeat itself,” Nathan Gonzales, Roll Call elections analyst and publisher of the political handicapping outlet Inside Elections, wrote in a recent column.
There’s a long way until next November, but as Americans’ views on the economy sour, no amount of gaslighting from Trump or AI regulation could change the GOP’s fate.
The Recap: Epstein files sure make Trump look guilty, and Kash Patel's sweet new ride
Dec. 22nd, 2025 08:58 pmdailykos_feedA daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know.
Climate research is Trump's latest casualty
Only Trump can somehow make this petty.
CBS bows again to Trump by shelving critical '60 Minutes' story
This is straight-up censorship.
We’d rather get coal.
Trump gives masterclass with Epstein files on how to appear very guilty
If it walks like a duck, and it talks like a duck …
Kash Patel gets himself a fancy new ride, thanks to taxpayers
Only the best will do for the world’s worst FBI director.
Resident Reality
Dec. 23rd, 2025 01:00 amnotalwaysright_feedRead Resident Reality
I spend an hour typing my address in over and over before calling the company.
Card Company: "Well, is your house real?"
Me: *After looking at my house, at my bills, at Google Maps because, did the matrix glitch and put me on the street?* "Yes... It's a real house."
Read Resident Reality
Nope, Trump hasn't given up on one of his dumbest obsessions
Dec. 23rd, 2025 12:01 amdailykos_feedPresident Donald Trump has triggered yet another round of international criticism of the United States after he announced on Monday that he has appointed Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as special envoy to Greenland.
Greenland is a semi-autonomous territory that is a part of the kingdom of Denmark. Trump’s announcement is part of his years-long obsession with making Greenland a part of the United States. The U.S. has never before had an envoy to Greenland and previously had good diplomatic relations with Denmark.
In a joint statement, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark and Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen of Greenland rebuked Trump’s actions.
“You cannot annex other countries,” they wrote, adding, “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders, and the United States must not take over Greenland.”
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission also slammed Trump, writing, “Territorial integrity and sovereignty are fundamental principles of international law. These principles are essential not only for the European Union, but for nations around the world. We stand in full solidarity with Denmark and the people of Greenland.”
In his statement responding to the announcement, Landry said he was happy to serve in a “volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the U.S.”
Trump has been fixated on pushing his strange idea about annexing Greenland and has refocused on it since he returned to the White House in January. Trump even dispatched Vice President JD Vance to visit Greenland in March, where he received a cool reception from residents.
Officials in Denmark and Greenland have repeatedly said the territory is not for sale or available for annexation.
Related | Trump’s Greenland delusions of grandeur are based on a deceiving map
Trump has been pushing the idea since his first term, first floating the notion back in 2019—possibly due to him misunderstanding how maps work to exaggerate Greenland’s size.
A poll of Greenland residents taken in January showed enormous opposition to Trump’s proposal. In that survey for the Danish newspaper Berlingske, 85% of Greenlanders said they were outright opposed to an American annexation. Only 6% favored Trump’s position while 9% said they were undecided.
Prior to Trump’s rhetoric, America enjoyed a strong relationship with Denmark and other international partners. Trump has constantly clashed with international leaders as he did in his first term. Trump has riled European allies, particularly over his tariff policies, and been in feuds with America’s closest neighbors—Mexico and Canada.
Trump’s default position is antagonizing the nations who have historically stood shoulder-to-shoulder with America in the past.
24 Joyful Pictures of Cats Taking Over Christmas Tree Decorating Duties
Dec. 22nd, 2025 04:00 pmicanhascheezburger_feedCats and Christmas trees are a combination that guarantees instant chaos and maximum cuteness. The moment the tree goes up, cats treat it like their own personal winter playground. They circle it like tiny forest explorers, sniffing every branch, testing every level, deciding exactly how high they'll climb once no one is looking. Some sit proudly underneath like they're guarding a magical portal, while others perch on the lower branches as if the tree came with built-in seating just for them.
Then there are the cats who turn the tree into their stage. They peek out between branches with wide eyes, swat at ornaments like they're hunting glittery prey, and bat at the lights as if they're conducting electricity experiments. A few go full drama and launch themselves into the tree without a single thought behind their actions.
Even when they're not causing trouble, there's something ridiculously sweet about them curled up under the lights, glowing softly in the warm holiday colors. Whether they're hiding inside the branches or proudly posing beside the tree, cats somehow make every Christmas tree funnier, cuter, and way more unpredictable than it has any right to be.
Annoying Customers Are Approaching Totality
Dec. 23rd, 2025 12:00 amnotalwaysright_feedRead Annoying Customers Are Approaching Totality
Customer: "Those ornaments are on sale! Three for two! Three for two!"
Me: "Yes, ma'am. All discounts will come off at the end."
I scan the next item.
Customer: "And those ribbons are 25% off!"
Alphabet Acquires Data Center and Energy Infrastructure Company Intersect For $4.75 Billion
Dec. 23rd, 2025 12:20 amslashdot_feedAlphabet is acquiring Intersect for $4.75 billion to accelerate data center and power-generation capacity as AI infrastructure demand surges. CNBC reports: Alphabet said Intersect's operations will remain independent, but that the acquisition will help bring more data center and generation capacity online faster. "Intersect will help us expand capacity, operate more nimbly in building new power generation in lockstep with new data center load, and reimagine energy solutions to drive U.S. innovation and leadership," Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, said in a statement.
Google already had a minority stake in Intersect from a funding round that was announced last December. In a release at the time, Intersect said its strategic partnership with Google and TPG Rise Climate aimed to develop gigawatts of data center capacity across the U.S., including a $20 billion investment in renewable power infrastructure by the end of the decade.
Alphabet said Monday that Intersect will work closely with Google's technical infrastructure team, including on the companies' co-located power site and data center in Haskell County, Texas. Google previously announced a $40 billion investment in Texas through 2027, which includes new data center campuses in the state's Haskell and Armstrong counties.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.