Sony erases digital content from libraries; we're reminded we don’t own what we buy

Sony erases digital content from libraries; we're reminded we don’t own what we buy

fivenewscrypto    juin 30, 2026   

Sony recently informed its PlayStation customers in the United Kingdom that they will no longer be able to watch previously purchased movies and shows from production and distribution company StudioCanal. As of September 1, affected customers will no longer be able to stream 551 titles from the PlayStation Store.

In a legal notice first spotted by gaming news outlet PlayStation LifeStyle, Sony said that affected customers will lose the ability to stream titles including Outrage: Way of the Yakuza, Paddington, Paddington 2, Pan’s Labyrinth, Rambo 3, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas “due to our content licensing agreements.” As of September, Sony will remove any affected titles that UK users bought from their PlayStation library, per the notice.

It’s possible that Sony may still make a deal with StudioCanal by September 1, or even after, that would allow users to keep watching the content they bought. This happened in 2023, when Sony said it would have to pull 1,318 seasons of Discovery shows from customers’ libraries. A few weeks after its announcement, Sony said that it would not pull the content because it had updated its licensing arrangements with Discovery.

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Ozone loss was a thing even before CFCs were widely used

Ozone loss was a thing even before CFCs were widely used

fivenewscrypto    juin 30, 2026   

The ban on ozone-depleting substances that successfully reversed the growth of the hole in the ozone layer isn’t seen as a missed opportunity. On the contrary, the quick global response is one of the best cases of common-sense environmental action. But what if it could have been done even earlier?

The fact that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)—chemicals once common in aerosol cans and refrigerant loops—could destroy ozone in the atmosphere was discovered in 1974. Within just a few years, bans on CFCs began to roll out based on the projected consequences. The seasonal ozone “hole” discovered over Antarctica in 1985 pushed things along even faster, and in 1987 an international agreement was signed to phase out CFCs everywhere.

A new study led by Jian Guan at MIT asks an interesting what-if question: Would it have been possible to detect this problem even sooner with today’s scientific tools?

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In a bold move, Rocket Lab acquires Iridium Communications

In a bold move, Rocket Lab acquires Iridium Communications

fivenewscrypto    juin 30, 2026   

Rocket Lab announced on Monday that it is acquiring the satellite communications company Iridium. The deal, made for cash and shares of Rocket Lab stock, values Iridium at about $8 billion.

The deal pairs the launch company, founded and led by Peter Beck, with a decades-old profitable satellite company whose network of 80 satellites in low-Earth orbit provides telecommunications services.

"We believe this will be one of the most transformative deals in the space industry," Beck said in a short promotional video announcing the deal. "It's the ultimate combination for growth."

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Think tank games out how to respond to disaster scenarios in space warfare

Think tank games out how to respond to disaster scenarios in space warfare

fivenewscrypto    juin 30, 2026   

Imagine this: The US military begins tracking a mysterious spacecraft maneuvering near one of the Space Force's missile-warning satellites more than 22,000 miles over the equator.

This US satellite cost several billion dollars to build and launch. It's one of a handful of sentinels keeping constant watch for ballistic missile launches that might threaten the US homeland or US military bases overseas. Suddenly, this missile warning satellite goes dark. Ground controllers at a military base just outside of Denver scramble to figure out what went wrong.

There are two possibilities. Perhaps the mystery spacecraft lurking nearby somehow disabled or destroyed it, or as sometimes happens in the unforgiving environment of space, something important broke on the satellite, rendering it unresponsive. If the former, was it an intentional attack or an accident? Who carried it out and why? If the latter, how might controllers reactivate the satellite?

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Comcast is splitting its media and broadband properties

Comcast is splitting its media and broadband properties

fivenewscrypto    juin 30, 2026   

Comcast said it plans to separate its media businesses from its mobile and broadband networks in the latest reshaping of the US industry, sending shares in the group up more than 20 percent on Monday.

The US media group said it expected to complete the break-up within a year through a tax-free spin-off of NBCUniversal and Sky —handing existing shareholders stock in both Comcast and the new standalone media company.

The move comes as the traditional American media industry races to keep pace as audiences shift their attention to social media and streaming platforms.

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NASA's X-59 "frankenjet" tests supersonic flight without the sonic boom

NASA's X-59 "frankenjet" tests supersonic flight without the sonic boom

fivenewscrypto    juin 30, 2026   

More than two decades since the Concorde supersonic airliner last took to the skies, NASA has been flying an experimental aircraft designed to replace loud sonic booms with a quieter thump equivalent to a car door slamming shut 20 feet away. A successful NASA flight test program could influence the design of future supersonic airliners capable of flying overland routes without rattling buildings—and people’s nerves.

The Lockheed Martin X-59 Quesst—an acronym for Quiet SuperSonic Technology—first took flight late last year and recently began supersonic test flights. But unlike with many experimental “X-plane” aircraft that may never leave restricted airspace near Edwards Air Force Base in California, NASA plans to eventually take the X-59 on a tour around the United States so residents of various cities and towns can provide feedback on the quieter sonic “thumps” it produces.

“Usually an X plane is kind of bare-bones—‘cobble it together from a bunch of parts from other airplanes and just demonstrate one thing,’” said Jim “Clue” Less, a NASA test pilot and aerospace engineer, in an interview with Ars. “We need to demonstrate that one thing, but then we need a plane that's robust enough that we can fly it all over the place and gather that data.”

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Why did this journal retract two 1940s papers by Max Planck?

Why did this journal retract two 1940s papers by Max Planck?

fivenewscrypto    juin 30, 2026   

German physicist Max Planck was one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics in the early 20th century, earning the 1918 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of quanta. There has never been a whisper of scandal about the man's integrity or his scientific work. So a pair of science historians were puzzled when they discovered that a scientific journal had inexplicably retracted two of Planck's papers from the 1940s.

The journal in question is Naturwissenschaften, now known as The Science of Nature. The journal typically adds a large RETRACTED notice across digital papers that have been retracted, leaving them available for download. But it has removed the two Planck papers entirely, leaving just a blank page (and empty PDFs) with a brief note saying the articles had been "withdrawn due to article violation.”

Physics historian Yves Gingras of the University of Quebec in Montreal was browsing the blog Retraction Watch's list of Nobel Prize winners who have had scientific papers retracted, just out of curiosity. Gingras was shocked to see Planck's name on the list and enlisted fellow historian Mahdi Khelfaoui, of the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivieres, to investigate why the two papers had been retracted. They outlined their findings in a preprint posted to the physics arXiv.

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