SDF Chatter

As a geologist, I have studied various types of natural rocks, but recently I have become interested in ‘anthropogenic geomaterials’ – things like industrial slag – and how they become entwined in geological and environmental processes. I came to Workington originally to look at the slag, because I was interested in its potential to scrub-capture carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. However, when encountering the rock platform with the wheel in it, I was drawn by its incongruity. After studying the geomaterials of Workington more closely with my colleagues Amanda Owen and David Brown, we believe that this little-known section of the English coastline represents a tangible and potentially long-lasting signature of the impact humans are having on the planet.

Unlike many industrial landscapes, nature here has mostly returned, so it would be easy to miss that the beach is composed of human materials. Here a process that normally takes millennia or aeons has happened in a matter of decades. And it’s not the only example: new forms of anthropogenic geology are emerging around the world. These new materials are blurring the borderline between the natural and unnatural. They are also raising a rather fundamental question for geology: what actually is a rock?

You come for the king on his b-day and fight night, you will pay.

It's like I observe my own thoughts while thinking them. I notice I try to escape this with vices.

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Paris (France) (AFP) – France's government took a new step Tuesday in search of "strategic autonomy" for its intelligence services, announcing that it would ditch American AI giant Palantir's data sifting systems in favour of a domestic provider.

The move comes as European governments are increasingly uneasy about relying on US-controlled technologies, with Washington squeezing access last week to the latest model from AI giant Anthropic.

"We cannot accept new strategic dependencies in the digital sphere," Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said as he announced the break by its DGSI agency with Palantir.

France must instead "build real autonomy" and "not depend on the goodwill of certain partners, who are capable of turning off the access tap" for artificial intelligence, he said.

French company ChapsVision will now become the "technological foundation" for "many public agencies for their critical data processing needs", the company said in a statement.

ChapsVision, founded in 2019, is a relative minnow compared to American AI behemoths, reporting 200 million euros ($232 million) of revenue in 2025 compared to Palantir's $4.5 billion.

Its tools designed to gather, prepare and analyse vast swathes of data have also been selected by Germany's VS internal security service, according to specialist media.

For its part, Palantir said in a statement that its contract with the DGSI "remains fully in force" and that "the company will continue to support the French government wherever its solutions are needed".

The continued Palantir contract was "to avoid suffering a capacity gap in this sensitive field essential to our national security", Lecornu's office told AFP.

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Mirror

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/06/16/yum-brands-sells-pizza-hut-to-private-equity-firm-longrange-capital-for-2point7-billion.html

On air October 2026.

Mirror

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) admits its staff were accused of sexually abusing at least 59 Sudanese refugees who had fled the civil war in search of safety.

Young girls were exploited in some cases, and often food or jobs were offered in exchange for sex.

The offences were committed in eastern Chad and date back to 2024 - about a year into Sudan's still-raging civil war.

MSF says it has sacked 18 culprits but tells the AP news agency it was unable to identify some of the other alleged perpetrators.

Protagonist for the Quest I’m running on the Parahumans Online discord. Drawn using an expanded MSX palette, that I’m using for all of the art assets.

Text and art by artist @BedbugCutlefish@lemmy.world