MAROKO133 Eksklusif ai: Now That NASA Found Signs of Life on Mars, It's Clear Trump M

📌 MAROKO133 Eksklusif ai: Now That NASA Found Signs of Life on Mars, It's Cle

NASA’s interim leader Sean Duffy didn’t make it through a single sentence in his announcement that the agency’s Mars Perseverance rover had spotted “potential biosignatures” on the Red Planet last year without sucking up to president Donald Trump.

While we’re still far from a definitive conclusion about current or ancient life on Mars, it was an exciting finding, with a sampled rock containing minerals closely associated with Earth-based microbial life.

The only problem? The Trump administration has made it clear that it’s not interested in returning the samples taken by NASA’s Perseverance rover back to Earth for laboratory analysis.

The agency’s Mars Sample Return mission had been a hot-button topic for years, with lawmakers balking at the proposed plan’s astronomical price tag of $11 billion. But the Trump administration wants to nix the mission altogether in its potentially devastating 2026 budget proposal, alongside dozens of other planetary science missions.

In other words, as much as Duffy glazes Trump publicly, in reality, Trump is our planet’s number one obstacle to following up on NASA’s blockbuster findings about life on Mars.

As Ars Technica reports, Duffy had very little to add when needled by reporters this week about the Trump administration’s commitment to returning the Mars samples, clumsily avoiding making any promises.

“What we’re going to do is look at our budget, so we look at our timing, and you know, how do we spend money better?” he told one reporter. “And you know, what technology do we have to get samples back more quickly? And so that’s a current analysis that’s happening right now.”

Duffy also reiterated that the Trump administration was pouring all of its resources into sending “our boots to the Moon and to Mars” — efforts that would be far more complex, expensive, and time-intensive than a sample return mission. (And that’s if sending astronauts to the Red Planet is even feasible in the first place.)

To experts, canceling the Mars Sample Return mission would be an enormous and costly mistake.

“Our understanding of Mars has gotten to the point that the questions we’re asking can best be addressed with returned samples,” University of Colorado Boulder senior research scientist Bruce Jakosky told Space.com earlier this year.

“To decide not to return them, or to put it off to an indefinite future time with human missions would be to take a major step back in exploring the solar system and the universe and in continuing to develop our scientific understanding of the world around us,” he added.

Jakosky also explained that such a mission could lay important groundwork for future crewed missions to the Red Planet, and “allow us to solve important problems in planetary protection so that we don’t put the Earth at risk from possible Martian microbes.”

Instead, the Trump administration wants to award the private space industry $1 billion to send the first humans to Mars.

What that plan looks like remains uncertain as ever — but considering the president’s complicated relationship with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, there’s a chance NASA will attempt to tap the space firm’s interplanetary Starship spacecraft for such a journey.

But if Musk’s abysmal track record when it comes to timelines is anything to go by, sending a crew to Mars could take a very long time. The company has encountered major headwinds in its efforts to turn its Starship super heavy launch platform into a reality.

And considering the major steps China has taken in its efforts to explore the Moon and Mars, there’s a good chance the United States could be beaten to the punch. China is hoping to launch its own Mars sample return as soon as 2028.

During this week’s press conference, Ars senior space reporter Eric Berger asked Duffy whether he was comfortable with losing such a key achievement to its geopolitical rival.

Duffy was seemingly unprepared, falling far short of making any commitments.

“We’re making the right calls for America and for our partners,” the former TV host assured. “And again, we lead, and we are going to continue to lead, but it’s always important that we keep pushing. We have to push because we are in another space race.”

More on NASA: NASA Announces Possible Discovery of Life on Mars by Comically Sucking Up to Trump

The post Now That NASA Found Signs of Life on Mars, It's Clear Trump Made a Massive Error appeared first on Futurism.

🔗 Sumber: futurism.com

📌 MAROKO133 Breaking ai: Tennessee bootlegger who lifted thousands of DVDs sentenc

Bootlegging has never disappeared, only evolved.

What was once limited to grainy camcorder recordings in theaters now also includes polished Blu-ray rips hitting the internet weeks early.

That underground economy just cost one Tennessee man nearly five years of his life.

The Department of Justice confirmed Thursday that 38-year-old Steven R. Hale of Memphis was sentenced to 57 months for stealing hundreds of pre-release DVDs and Blu-rays and selling them online.

Hollywood blockbusters stolen

Hale worked at a multinational DVD and Blu-ray distribution company that handled films for major studios.

He stole hundreds of discs from February 2021 through March 2022 before their official release.

The titles read like a blockbuster checklist. Investigators seized early copies of F9: The Fast Saga, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Godzilla v. Kong, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Dune, and Black Widow.

He sold them through e-commerce platforms, pocketing cash while undermining studios’ release strategies.

But the most damaging theft involved Spider-Man: No Way Home. Hale bypassed encryption and ripped the Blu-ray before it hit shelves.

That high-quality copy spread online more than a month early. Downloads soared into the tens of millions, costing the copyright owner tens of millions of dollars, prosecutors said.

“Today’s sentencing signals our commitment to protecting American innovation from pirates that would exploit others’ work for a quick profit,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. He emphasized that the leak inflicted massive financial damage.

Bootlegging culture, of course, has long been part of internet history. Torrenting films and music shaped how people consumed media in the early digital era, and even today, many remain attached to it.

Naturally, reactions to Hale’s arrest were mixed. On Ars Technica’s coverage of the case, one commenter named MyBloodyBallantine wrote: “He could have avoided jail If he just used them as training materials for an AI.”

Guilty plea cuts sentence

In May, Hale pleaded guilty to criminal copyright infringement and agreed to return more than 1,100 stolen discs seized from him.

Prosecutors consolidated the case with a separate gun charge after agents found him with a loaded pistol despite prior felony convictions.

The plea deal reduced his potential sentence from 15 years to a maximum of five. The judge handed down 57 months, just under that ceiling.

The DOJ acknowledged that while the leak caused huge online damage, the calculated “infringement amount” may have been closer to $40,000.

Special Agent in Charge Joseph E. Carrico of the FBI’s Nashville Field Office said the case highlights the risk of piracy. “Today’s sentence should send a strong message that willfully stealing another party’s intellectual property is a serious crime and the FBI is committed to holding violators accountable,” Carrico said.

The FBI led the investigation, with Senior Counsel Matthew A. Lamberti of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Raney Irwin prosecuting.

Hollywood may never tally the full losses from Hale’s leaks. What’s certain is that his bootleg hustle ended with prison time.

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com