A U.S. Army battalion at Fort Stewart is offering soldiers a four-day pass timed to the release of Grand Theft Auto VI if they reenlist for at least two years. The program is limited to one unit for now, but it fits the Army's broader effort to appeal to gamers as a recruiting and retention pool. CBS News reports: Twenty soldiers at Fort Stewart in Georgia in the Army's 9th Brigade Engineering Battalion, part of the 3rd Infantry Division, have already chosen this incentive as part of their reenlistment, an Army spokesperson told CBS News on Wednesday. "The idea was to have a unique incentives program that connects to what Soldiers are interested in," Lt. Col. Angel Tomko, a spokesperson for the 3rd Infantry Division, said in a statement. "The command team, in conjunction with the career counselor, wanted to get soldiers excited to reenlist."

[...] The Army memo, which has circulated online, says any soldier who signs a reenlistment contract between Aug. 1, 2026 and Nov. 14 will be authorized for a special four-day pass designated to coincide with "the highly anticipated release of the video game Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA 6)." About 130 soldiers are currently eligible for the incentive, Tomko said. Eligible soldiers must reenlist for a minimum of two years and up to six years.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: X's algorithm learns what you hate and shows you more of it, according to a new study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The paper, titled Value misalignment of X's feed algorithm is a reflection of value tensions in engagement, found that the site's algorithm prioritized engagement above all else when it generated a user's For You Page. It also showed that X serves more ragebait to people who say they are Democrats, although the exact reason for that is unclear. "In 2026 that's maybe not the most surprising headline ever," Ziv Epstein, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, and co-author of the paper, told 404 Media. "So we actually dug in a little deeper to figure out why this is actually happening, and it turns out that X's feed algorithm, like a lot of these social media algorithms, is optimized for engagement [but] it turns out that not all types of engagement are considered equally."

The researchers found that X's algorithm can push users toward content that conflicts with their stated values, especially when they reply to posts that anger or provoke them. Although replies accounted for just 6.8% of interactions, they appeared to carry disproportionate weight: "It's this feedback loop of outrage baiting. The algorithm learns that you get outraged and then continues to serve more content in that direction," said Epstein.

It's unclear why X seems to serve ragebait to Democrats more often than Republicans. 404 Media speculates that it may be because there's more rightwing content on X overall or that Democrats tend to engage with posts they disagree with more often. "There might be some kind of differential effects on information diets there, or it might be something more psychological about how different you know partisan identities are triggering different kinds of actions and reactions, but ultimately I don't want to speculate too much," said Epstein.

X's former product chief Nikita Bier confirmed that the site had been set to favor replies. "This is no longer true," Bier said in a post on X. "The largest contributor of seeing ragebait was the reply predictor and we were aware that angry replies were causing people to see more of that content. So last month, we gave the reply predictor a 15x boost if it's a friend's post -- and it reduced ragebait by [an] order of magnitude."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

• Hungary’s Sandor Csanyi highly critical of Fifa president

• He cites dismissal of COO Kevin Lamour as ‘final straw’

Gianni Infantino has lost the support of another one of Fifa’s vice-presidents with the Hungarian Football Federation chief, Sandor Csanyi, criticising the president’s “professional judgment, ethical standards and leadership”.

In an explosive letter sent to Infantino on Tuesday, which was first obtained by the news agency AFP, Csanyi states that he has “lost the confidence I previously placed in you” and describes the “unexpected dismissal” of Fifa’s chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, as the “final straw”.

Continue reading...

Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
An unlikely relationship blossoms in Abigail Weinstock’s compelling and touching solo drama

It takes a brave writer/performer to make her character a sociopath. How to keep the audience on board with someone who is callous and indifferent?

In Abigail Weinstock’s sparkling one-woman show, 30-year-old Eliana has been caught making clandestine recordings in her neighbour’s bedroom and cannot deny it. A court summons follows. Even then, her first thought is how to game the system.

At Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, until 31 August

All our Edinburgh festival reviews

Continue reading...

Frank Beard is overleden. Wat je verder ook van ZZ Top mag vinden, niemand kan ontkennen dat die ongecompliceerde bluesrock verdomd lekker klinkt! En dat is toch echt voor een aanzienlijk deel te danken aan de drummer, hoezeer die baardmannen ook de blikvangers waren van de band.

De Champions League komt naar Gelderland, maar daarvoor moet NEC eerst nog even twee potjes spelen en winnen tegen het Noorse Bodø (spreek uit: boeeeeeeeeeh-de) Glimt. Vorige week hadden we die zinderende pot tegen Olympiakos en daarvan trilt het Goffterstadion nog steeds, dus aan sfeer geen gebrek. Misschien is Bodø wel de perfecte tegenstander van NEC, want hun clubkleuren zijn geel-zwart en dat werkt voor Nijmegenaren als een rode lap op een stier. Tijd voor een voetbalfeest. Vanavond zijn we allemaal Nijmegenaren, zeggen we 'en eej see' omdat die letters in ons hart zitten en onze nek ergens anders zit, zijn we allemaal fan van Frank Boeijen, vinden we Havana een prima stad om mee vergeleken te worden, willen we nooit meer naar Arnhem, zijn rood, groen en zwart onze kleuren en gaan we met tien man plus de keeper en de terreinknecht vol in de aanval. Al was het maar voor de UEFA-coëfficiënten.
Update - THE CHAAAAAAAAMPIOOOOOOOONS!!!
Update 10' - NEEEE wordt het zo'n avond??? Hands en pingel voor Bodø. Ja die gast van Bodø pakt m natuurlijk eerst al met z'n hand. VAR!
Update 11' - Geen pingel, NEC LEEFT.

Social

De vakantie van Tulay en haar gezin eindigde afgelopen week met een flinke dosis stress. De buurman paste op de katten maar bij thuiskomst in Rotterdam-Ommoord bleken ze alle drie te zijn ontsnapt. Waar twee van de viervoeters al snel weer op de stoep stonden, bleef kat Efe spoorloos.

In dit blog houden we je op de hoogte van het belangrijkste en meest opvallende 112-nieuws in de regio woensdag 19 augustus.

HOUTEN (ANP) - Voor het eerst sinds 16 juni is het in De Bilt niet warmer geweest dan 20 graden. Daarmee is het recordaantal opeenvolgende warme dagen, waarbij het warmer moet zijn dan 20 graden, op 64 blijven staan. Het werd in De Bilt woensdag niet warmer dan 19,7 graden, aldus Weeronline.

Het oude record dateerde uit 2018 en stond op zestig warme dagen op rij. Dat werd zaterdag al verbroken. Verder kent het jaar 2026 tot nu toe 35 zomerse dagen, waarbij het kwik boven de 25 graden moet liggen, en elf tropische dagen met een temperatuur van boven de 30 graden. Pas twee keer werd het warmer dan 35 graden in De Bilt, wat een zeldzaam hoge temperatuur is.

Sinds het begin van het jaar zijn er 85 warme dagen geteld. Normaal telt een heel jaar in De Bilt 97 warme dagen. De verwachting is dat er in september nog een aantal warme dagen bijkomen.