The Road to Macstock takes a serious turn as Mike T. Rose previews his workshop on becoming a digital caretaker for family members and loved ones. Mike discusses scams targeting older adults, password sharing, remote support, Apple Passwords, financial preparedness, and the need to balance protection, respect, independence, and trust when helping others manage their digital lives. 

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The MacVoices Live! panel covers a fake vendor site spreading malware, Apple’s new accessibility previews, and a hardware reorganization aimed at faster, more unified product development. Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Eric Bolden, Web Bixby, Jim Rea, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Jeff Gamet, and Marty Jencius also discuss Eyes Off for shoulder-surfing protection, Microsoft and Google reactions to the MacBook Neo, Google’s proposed AI laptop, and broader questions about AI becoming part of operating systems. 

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A wide range of tech stories get the MacVoices treatment, starting with the quick sellout of the Steve Jobs commemorative coin and what strong MacBook Neo demand may say about Apple’s pricing, chip planning, and enterprise appeal. Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Marty Jencius, Eric Bolden, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Jeff Gamet and Mark Fuccio also discuss Apple updates unexpectedly changing settings, a Canvas ransomware disruption affecting schools, Chrome’s hidden AI download, Google’s Liquid Glass similarities, Digg’s AI-focused return, and safer lithium coin batteries. 

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O Chrome traz vários recursos de integração com outros serviços do Google, como é o caso do Gemini — solução de inteligência artificial da empresa.

O Gemini Live permite manter conversas ininterruptas com a IA, como se fosse uma conversa com outra pessoa.

Para quem possui surdez ou alguma dificuldade de audição, é possível habilitar a exibição das legendas do Gemini Live enquanto estiver usando-o no seu Mac. Veja como! 👨‍💻

Com o app aberto, acesse as configurações do navegador. É possível fazer isso indo até Chrome » Ajustes…, na barra de menus, usando o atalho de teclado ⌘ command , ou clicando no botão com três pontinhos (no canto superior direito).

Selecione “Inovações de IA” (na barra lateral esquerda) e entre em “Gemini no Chrome”.

Por fim, marque a chave ao lado de “Legenda descritiva”.

Na prática, você poderá conferir as legendas nas conversas do Gemini Live, como no exemplo abaixo:

Muito bacana, não acha? 😉

Com a disponibilização do Gemini no Google Chrome para Macs, ficou muito fácil consultar o serviço de inteligência artificial da empresa para alguma atividade que precisa fazer.

Por padrão, o painel lateral do Gemini fica localizado na parte direita da tela do seu computador. Mas, se preferir, é possível que ele seja mostrado no lado esquerdo.

Veja como escolher isso! ✨

Acesse as configurações do Chrome usando um dos seguintes métodos:

• Vá até Chrome » Ajustes…, na barra de menus;
• Use o atalho de teclado ⌘ command ,;
• Clique nos três pontinhos (no canto superior direito) e em “Configurações”.

Depois, acesse “Aparência” (na barra lateral esquerda).

Na seção “Posição do painel lateral”, use o menu suspenso “Gemini” para escolher entre “À direita” ou “À esquerda”.

Com a liberação do Google Gemini no navegador Chrome para macOS, tornou-se possível utilizar a inteligência artificial da empresa de uma maneira rápida, sem precisar abrir um aplicativo separado, por exemplo.

Uma das maneiras de sair ou voltar a navegar pelo Gemini no Chrome é por meio de um atalho de teclado. Apesar de já vir com um pré-configurado, você pode alterá-lo.

Veja como! 😉

Abra as configurações do Chrome, indo até Chrome » Ajustes…, na barra de menus, usando o atalho ⌘ command , ou clicando nos três pontinhos, no canto superior direito.

Selecione “Inovações de IA” e entre em “Gemini no Chrome”. Clique no lápis ao lado de “Atalho para navegação” e utilize o teclado para adicionar o novo atalho preferido.

Recentemente, o Google atualizou o navegador Chrome para incluir recursos de inteligência artificial do Gemini.

Porém, uma novidade que certamente não agradou muita gente foi a presença de um botão dedicado à IA no canto superior direito do browser no macOS.

Felizmente, usando um truque bem simples, é possível ocultá-lo. Veja como! 😉

Com o Chrome aberto no Mac, abra os ajustes do navegador usando um dos seguintes métodos:

• Vá até Chrome » Ajustes…, na barra de menus.
• Use o atalho ⌘ command ;.
• Clique nos três pontinhos (ao lado da sua foto, no canto superior direito).

Depois, clique em “Inovações de IA” (na barra lateral esquerda) e entre em “Gemini no Chrome”.

Por fim, desmarque a opção “Mostrar o Gemini na parte de cima do navegador”.

"Google should be required to divest the Chrome browser, and prohibited from paying Apple to distribute Google's search engine, the nonprofit advocacy group Public Knowledge argues in a new court filing," MediaPost reports, citing a friend-of-the-court brief filed Tuesday in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals: The group adds that "independent ownership" of Chrome "would open the distribution channel Google controls and allow Chrome to serve browser users when it makes privacy decisions and determines how to integrate search and (artificial intelligence)..." In September 2025, [U.S. District Court Judge] Mehta issued a remedies order that requires Google to share some data about users' searches with "qualified" competitors and to provide syndicated search results and ads to those competitors. The order also prohibits Google from entering into exclusive distribution contracts for Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant and the Gemini app for six years, but allows the company to continue to make payments for search-ad revenue or distribution to Apple, Mozilla and others... Google recently appealed Mehta's order. The company argued in its written brief that it "prevailed in the marketplace fair and square," adding that Apple and Mozilla "sensibly chose" Google as the default search engine "because it gave their users the best experience," and because Apple and Mozilla would earn the most ad revenue through the deals. The [U.S.] Justice Department and states countered to the appellate court last week that the liability finding should stand, and also argued that Google should have been banned from paying Apple and Mozilla for placement as the default search engine on their browsers. [Antitrust enforcers had originally asked the judge to order Google to divest Chrome, but he's already rejected that request.] The government did not argue in its appellate papers that Google should be forced to sell Chrome. But Public Knowledge independently contends in its friend-of-the-court brief that divestiture would benefit consumers... "Divestiture would place those decisions with an institution whose success depends on serving browser users primarily...." The group is calling the appellate court's attention to Google's April 2025 decision to preserve tracking cookies — a reversal from its earlier plans to block third-party cookies by default. "Google is in the position of both deciding Chrome's tracking rules while running the advertising business affected by them," Public Knowledge writes. "An independent Chrome could make those decisions on behalf of users alone." But Firefox developer Mozilla filed its own friend-of-the-court brief Thursday warning Firefox could be forced to "exit the browser and browser engine markets" if it can't receive payment from Google for distributing its search engine, according to a later report from MediaPost: Federal and state antitrust enforcers recently asked the appellate court to reverse the portion of Mehta's order that allows those payments to continue. But Mozilla counters in its new friend-of-the-court brief that Mehta's decision regarding those payments was supported by the evidence --including a study it conducted concluding that its revenue would "decline dramatically" if forced to replace Google with Bing as Firefox's default search engine... Google is expected to file new arguments with the appellate court next month.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Kenny still appreciated a good church service and even did readings from the breviary. Unusually, he argued there was no reason why an agnostic shouldn't pray.

Source

Excavations carried out as part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) have brought to light an architectural complex of incalculable value in the heart of Villa Celimontana. Under the supervision of the Special Superintendency of Rome of the Ministry of Culture, the work has uncovered eight rooms belonging to an Imperial-era building whose […]

In the summer of 15 BC, Emperor Augustus’ two stepsons, Tiberius and Drusus, brought the Central Alps and the Swiss Plateau under Roman control. That campaign concluded decades of efforts to link the Gallic provinces with Illyricum and secure the routes between northern Italy and the Danube. However, while the western and eastern routes of […]

Jérôme Dupras is a member of one of Quebec’s most popular folk rock bands. Now, as the province’s chief scientist, he will help shape its environmental destiny.

Cancer-associated cachexia, the wasting syndrome that erodes muscle, fat and physical resilience in many people with advanced cancer, has long resisted treatment. Now, researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) report a preclinical strategy that targets the disorder from an unexpected location: the brainstem. In tumor-bearing mice, an RNA-based therapy designed to silence a neural receptor preserved body weight, muscle mass, fat stores and physical function, while dramatically improving survival even after cachexia had already developed.

The study was conducted by a joint team led by Minho Shong and Jinkuk Kim of KAIST’s Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering, in collaboration with the KAIST faculty startup THOR Therapeutics. Their approach focuses on the biological circuit formed by growth differentiation factor 15, or GDF15, and its receptor, GFRAL. GDF15 is a signaling protein released in elevated amounts during several disease states, including cancer. When it reaches the hindbrain and binds to GFRAL, it activates neural pathways associated with nausea, appetite suppression and profound metabolic changes.

Cachexia is more complex than ordinary weight loss. Patients can continue losing muscle and body fat even when food intake is adequate, because cancer and the host response to cancer disrupt the systems that regulate energy use, inflammation and tissue maintenance. The resulting decline can weaken immunity, reduce mobility and make chemotherapy more difficult to tolerate. Although the syndrome affects an estimated 50 to 80 percent of people with cancer, available treatments have generally focused on stimulating appetite or providing nutritional support. Such measures may increase food intake temporarily, but they do not necessarily halt the breakdown of muscle or correct the underlying metabolic disturbance.

The KAIST researchers reasoned that the GDF15–GFRAL pathway could act as a central command system for this wasting response. GDF15 produced in the body circulates to the brainstem, where GFRAL is concentrated in a specialized region known as the area postrema and its surrounding neural circuitry. Once activated, this receptor can influence brain networks that control feeding behavior and autonomic metabolism. Rather than attempting to neutralize GDF15 throughout the body, the team chose to disable the receptor itself in the brainstem, preventing the signal from being received.

To accomplish this, the researchers developed antisense oligonucleotides, or ASOs, directed against Gfral messenger RNA. ASOs are short, chemically modified strands of nucleic acid engineered to bind a specific RNA sequence. When an ASO binds its target messenger RNA, cellular enzymes can promote its degradation or interfere with its processing, reducing production of the corresponding protein. In this case, the treatment lowered the supply of GFRAL receptors in the brainstem. The strategy therefore acts at the RNA stage, before the receptor is assembled and displayed on the surface of neural cells.

The experiments were performed in mice carrying tumors and showing established signs of cancer cachexia. This timing is important because many experimental interventions appear effective only when administered before severe wasting begins. According to the researchers, GFRAL silencing after cachexia had progressed substantially reduced the loss of muscle and fat. Treated animals also showed restoration of metabolic functions that had deteriorated during tumor growth, suggesting that the intervention did more than increase appetite. It helped interrupt the physiological program driving the breakdown of energy reserves.

The most striking result involved survival. At approximately day 50, the endpoint used in the study, about 90 percent of the mice receiving the GFRAL-targeting ASO remained alive, compared with roughly 20 percent of untreated tumor-bearing animals. The treated mice retained greater body weight and muscle mass and performed better in measures of muscle function. These findings indicate that cachexia itself can be a major determinant of outcome in cancer-bearing organisms and that blocking its central signaling pathway may provide benefits beyond nutritional improvement.

The work does not yet establish whether the same treatment will be safe or effective in people. GFRAL signaling is involved in the body’s response to circulating stress signals, and manipulating a receptor in the brainstem requires careful assessment of neurological, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and metabolic effects. Human cancers also vary widely in their production of GDF15, tumor location and inflammatory biology. Nevertheless, the results offer a mechanistically precise alternative to therapies that merely encourage patients to eat. By targeting the receptor rather than broadly suppressing the signaling protein, the ASO approach may eventually be combined with chemotherapy, immunotherapy or other cancer treatments.

The findings, published in Cell Reports Medicine, represent an early step toward translating a brain-directed RNA therapy for cachexia. The researchers plan further preclinical studies, along with development of manufacturing and quality-control systems, with the stated goal of beginning clinical development in cancer patients by 2030. If the biology can be reproduced safely in humans, silencing GFRAL could become an adjunct treatment intended to preserve physical function, extend treatment tolerance and improve survival. For now, however, the evidence remains limited to tumor-bearing mice, and the central challenge will be determining whether a signal that can be switched off experimentally can be controlled with equal precision in patients.

Subject of Research:
An antisense oligonucleotide therapy targeting brainstem GFRAL to treat cancer-associated cachexia in tumor-bearing mice.

Article Title:
Therapeutic Gfral silencing via antisense oligonucleotides ameliorates cancer-associated cachexia and extends survival in tumor-bearing mice

Web References:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2026.102939

References:
Cell Reports Medicine, published 27 July 2026. DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2026.102939

Image Credits:
KAIST

Keywords:
Cancer cachexia, GFRAL, GDF15, antisense oligonucleotides, RNA therapy, brainstem, muscle wasting, cancer metabolism, preclinical research, KAIST

Laser scans revealed a Roman stronghold overlooking the battlefield where an Alpine people lost their freedom.

Nigeria, a coastal country in western Africa, was landlocked in the Sahara, among other errors. The department said it had been “hastily altered.”

Sayan Sen (Hacker News):

For a while now the transition away from Manifest V2 (MV2) to MV3 has been on-going and it looks like it is entering its final phase of deprecation, at least, in the case of Google Chrome. A recent discussion thread in the w3c WebExtensions Community Group GitHub repo has highlighted how the latest and upcoming versions of the most popular browser are expected to be its final releases with support for MV2 extensions.

[…]

Here is a rundown of the changes coming in the final such releases of Chromium releases:

• Chromium 150 lost ExtensionManifestV2Disabled option
• Chromium 151 will loose ExtensionManifestV2Unsupported option
• Chromium 151 will loose ExtensionManifestV2Availability option
• Chromium 151 will likely loose AllowLegacyMV2Extensions option

Other Chromium-based browsers like Opera and Microsoft Edge could soon follow suit too. Although it is not specified, Edge began disabling uBlock Origin back in February, and Opera could also stop the functioning of MV2 add-ons, even though it had committed to support MV2 for longer in October 2024.

Google:

Aug 31st 2026: All remaining Manifest V2 extensions removed from the Chrome Web Store

Previously:

• Chrome Warning About Manifest V2 Extensions
• Chrome’s Manifest V3 and uBlock Origin

Update (2026-09-02): Web Iterate (Hacker News):

Google today reached the final milestone in a browser-extension transition that has been years in the making, all remaining Manifest V2 extensions were removed from the Chrome Web Store.

The animals’ energy needs favor a higher but shorter route into Italy.

A remarkable collection of ancient inscriptions within a cave in eastern Spain is providing archaeologists with deep new insights into the early religious practices it once housed.

Among the new findings, researchers say the inscriptions are shedding new light on the prominent role women played in a subterranean cult, which centered on a previously unknown ancient goddess.

The discoveries were made at Cova Dones in Millares, Valencia, a cave that presents evidence of human activity going back tens of thousands of years.

There, researchers recently documented at least 120 Latin inscriptions dating to the first and second centuries A.D.—a significant increase in the number of writings from this era known to exist at Cova Dones.

Previously, only around 15 of these inscriptions had been identified. The new findings elevate Cova Dones to what may be the Roman Empire’s largest known cave sanctuary containing Latin inscriptions.

The Ritual Space of an Ancient Goddess is Revealed

Research at the cave was led by researchers from the University of Alicante and the University of Zaragoza, which revealed not only the inscriptions, but also a well-preserved ritual space located at a depth of close to 200 meters within the cave.

Among the discoveries researchers have made are a small collection of votive inscriptions, which are dedicated to what appears to be a goddess referred to simply as “Domina,” which means “The Lady.”

Three of those inscriptions also feature an unrecognized epithet—MALACI—which the researchers believe may describe some aspect of this mysterious goddess, possibly related in some way to the water that flows through the underground ritual space within the cave.

“Thanks to a set of five votive inscriptions, we know for certain that in Roman times a goddess, reverentially called Domina, ‘the Lady,’ was venerated in the cave,” says Silvia Alfayé, a professor of Ancient History at the University of Zaragoza.

Alfayé also says that the inscriptions further indicate the active role women played in the deity’s worship during this period.

Anatomy of an Ancient Roman Subterranean Cult

Within the newly-identified ritual space at Cova Dones, several individual female names were identified among the newly discovered inscriptions. This, according to Alfayé and her colleagues, reinforces the notion that the sanctuary had been a regular destination for women, rather than merely serving as an occasional site of pilgrimage.

Specifically, the presence of the inscriptions all within a single chamber, which the research team has dubbed the “Roman Sanctuary,” places them alongside natural pools fed by underground water, which may have added to the allure of the subterranean ritual landscape the cave offered.

Strengthening that interpretation, the archaeologists also discovered spindle whorls, a variety of small tools used for spinning thread that were closely linked with women’s domestic and symbolic roles in the ancient Roman world, and beyond. Their presence near the inscriptions, the researchers believe, could imply links to ceremonies performed in the cave long ago, which may have incorporated textile-related offerings.

Ongoing Discoveries at Cova Dones

The recent findings at Cova Dones are only the latest offerings from the ancient site, which is already renowned for the ancient human presence it has preserved.

In 2023, The Debrief reported on discoveries within the cave that are now recognized as the largest known collection of surviving Paleolithic cave art in eastern Iberia. Such discoveries include more than 100 paintings and engravings dating back over 24,000 years.

The discovery of the Roman sanctuary occurred the following year, with the detection of Latin inscriptions and a coin featuring the Roman emperor Claudius, which archaeologists believe may have been left as a votive offering.

Then in 2025, archaeologists discovered more than 100 intentionally modified stalagmite formations, a unique category of archaeological evidence known as speleofacts. Altogether, such discoveries have helped cement Cova Dones as one of the most important sites in Europe to preserve evidence of prehistoric human modifications to an underground space.

Unraveling the Mysteries of a Subterranean World

Adding to the recent Roman inscription discoveries, Alfayé and her colleagues have also discovered artifacts that include bronze rings, a bracelet, ceramic vessels, faunal remains, and additional ritual objects—all of which provide additional clues that may help to reconstruct centuries of religious activity that once occurred deep within the cave.

Presently, many of the inscriptions await deciphering, and some large sections of the cave remain that have not yet been explored. With the promise of additional discoveries, archaeologists are confident that Cova Dones has only just begun to reveal its secrets.

In the coming years, new chapters in the story of this ancient subterranean landscape await discovery, exploration, and interpretation.

Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.