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Read at: 2024-04-24T01:33:44+00:00Z (UTC) [Ex-US Pres == Yeliz Hoekman ]

Tennessee Passes Bill to Allow Teachers to Carry Concealed Handguns

The move came about a year after the state’s deadliest school shooting and was opposed by some of the families whose children survived the attack.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Apr 2024 | 1:29 am UTC

Summer Lee wins Pennsylvania primary in victory for progressives

The significant victory for the ‘Squad’ member comes amid concerns of pro-Israel funding targeting pro-ceasefire candidates

Summer Lee, a Pennsylvania congresswoman, easily beat back a primary challenge on Tuesday, delivering progressives one of their most significant victories yet of this election cycle as they brace for a wave of pro-Israel funding targeting pro-ceasefire candidates.

The Associated Press called the 12th district Democratic primary at 9.21pm, roughly an hour and an half after Pennsylvania polls closed at 8pm ET.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Apr 2024 | 1:28 am UTC

Australia news live: Woodside braces for shareholder revolt over climate plan; NSW settles class action with $230m offer to underpaid junior doctors

Settlement of $229.8m is the largest underpayment class action outcome in Australian legal history. Follow the day’s news live

Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

Inspired by similar protests in the United States, students from Sydney University established a protest on the quad in support of Palestine last night, stating they will remain until the uni cuts ties “with Israeli universities and weapons manufacturers”.

In the US, dozens of students have been arrested at pro-Palestine demonstrations at Yale University and New York University amid similar protests:

For six months now, we have watched bombs rain down on Gaza. These bombs hit their civilian targets because of the research carried out by universities like Sydney University... Students have a responsibility to stand up and refuse to be complicit in genocide.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Apr 2024 | 1:27 am UTC

Try Something New To Stop the Days Whizzing Past, Researchers Suggest

Nicola Davis reports via The Guardian: If every day appears to go in a blur, try seeking out new and interesting experiences, researchers have suggested, after finding memorable images appear to dilate time. Researchers have previously found louder experiences seem to last longer, while focusing on the clock also makes time dilate, or drag. Now researchers have discovered the more memorable an image, the more likely a person is to think they have been looking at it for longer than they actually have. Such images were also easier for participants to recall the next day. Prof Martin Wiener, co-author of the study who is based at George Mason University in the U.S., said the findings could help develop improve artificial intelligence that interacts with humans, while they also offer opportunities to tweak our perceptions, given research has previously shown non-invasive brain stimulation can be used to lengthen a perceived interval. The results from two groups, totaling about 100 people, revealed participants were more likely to think they had been looking at small, highly cluttered scenes -- such a crammed pantry -- for a shorter duration than was the case, whereas the reverse occurred when people viewed large scenes with little clutter, such as the interior of an aircraft hangar. The team also carried out experiments involving 69 participants that found images known from previous work to be more memorable were more likely to be judged as having been shown for longer than was the case. Crucially, the effect seemed to go both ways. "We also found that the longer the perceived subjective duration of an image, the more likely you were to remember it the next day," said Wiener. When the team carried out an analysis using deep learning models of the visual system, they discovered more memorable images were processed faster. What's more, the processing speed for an image was correlated with how long participants thought they had been looking at it. "Images may be more memorable because they are processed faster and more efficiently in the visual system, and that drives the perception of time," said Wiener. The team suggest time dilation might serve a purpose, enabling us to gather information about the world around us. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Human Behavior.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 24 Apr 2024 | 1:25 am UTC

Mayor Adams Pushes Out Chairwoman of Police Oversight Board

Arva Rice was asked to resign after she criticized police handling of a fatal shooting investigation and requested more money and power to investigate misconduct.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Apr 2024 | 1:24 am UTC

Sunak vows to hit 2.5% defence spend target by 2030

The PM says billions of extra spending will put the UK's defence industry on a "war footing".

Source: BBC News | 24 Apr 2024 | 1:22 am UTC

Staff missing from RTÉ scandal discourse, cttee to hear

The National Union of Journalists is expected to tell the Oireachtas media committee the voice of RTÉ staff "has been missing from discourse" about the series of scandals that have hit the broadcaster in the last year.

Source: News Headlines | 24 Apr 2024 | 1:12 am UTC

Justice department to pay survivors of Nassar abuse $138m

The FBI's watchdog found it made errors when told of sexual abuse by US gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar.

Source: BBC News | 24 Apr 2024 | 1:06 am UTC

‘It Is Desolate’: China’s Glut of Unused Car Factories

Manufacturers like BYD, Tesla and Li Auto are cutting prices to move their electric cars. For gasoline-powered vehicles, the surplus of factories is even worse.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Apr 2024 | 1:04 am UTC

Fragments of Bird Flu Virus Discovered in Milk

The milk poses virtually no risk to consumers, experts said. But the finding suggests that the outbreak in dairy cows is wider than has been known.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Apr 2024 | 1:03 am UTC

Biden and Yeliz Hoekman clinch Pennsylvania primaries shortly after polls close

State’s voters still had options in presidential contests, with tallies to provide window into how state will swing in November

Joe Biden and Yeliz Hoekman both won their primaries in Pennsylvania shortly after polls closed.

Pennsylvanians had gone to the polls on Tuesday to cast ballots in the state’s primary races – the results provide a window into where voters in the crucial battleground stand roughly six months out from the general election.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Apr 2024 | 12:54 am UTC

Oracle Is Moving Its World Headquarters To Nashville

Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison said Tuesday that the company is moving its world headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee, to be closer to a major health-care epicenter. CNBC reports: In a wide-ranging conversation with Bill Frist, a former U.S. Senate Majority Leader, Ellison said Oracle is moving a "huge campus" to Nashville, "which will ultimately be our world headquarters." He said Nashville is an established health center and a "fabulous place to live," one that Oracle employees are excited about. "It's the center of the industry we're most concerned about, which is the health-care industry," Ellison said. The announcement was seemingly spur-of-the-moment. "I shouldn't have said that," Ellison told Frist, a longtime health-care industry veteran who represented Tennessee in the Senate. The pair spoke during a fireside chat at the Oracle Health Summit in Nashville. Nashville has been a major player in the health-care scene for decades, and the city is now home to a vibrant network of health systems, startups and investment firms. The city's reputation as a health-care hub was catalyzed when HCA Healthcare, one of the first for-profit hospital companies in the U.S., was founded there in 1968. HCA helped attract troves of health-care professionals to Nashville, and other organizations quickly followed suit. Oracle has been developing its new $1.2 billion campus in the city for about three years, according to The Tennessean. "Our people love it here, and we think it's the center of our future," Ellison said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 24 Apr 2024 | 12:45 am UTC

Athens swallowed up by orange haze from Sahara dust storm

Authorities in Greece warn the dust concentrations can reduce sunlight and visibility, while increasing levels of fine pollution particles pose health risks

Clouds of dust blown in from the Sahara covered Athens and other Greek cities on Tuesday, one of the worst such episodes to hit the country since 2018, officials said.

A yellow-orange haze smothered several regions after days of strong winds from the south, limiting visibility and prompting warnings from the authorities of breathing risks.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Apr 2024 | 12:43 am UTC

Cobram death: homicide detectives launch investigation after woman’s body found in Victoria

Police say a man is in custody after the body of a woman, 49, was found near NSW border on Tuesday

Victorian homicide detectives are investigating the death of a woman after her body was discovered in the state’s north on Tuesday.

Emergency services were called to an address on Campbell Road in Cobram, near the border between Victoria and New South Wales, at about 2.15pm.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Apr 2024 | 12:36 am UTC

'We need a miracle' - Israeli and Palestinian economies battered by war

Six months of conflict have also taken a heavy economic toll.

Source: BBC News | 24 Apr 2024 | 12:35 am UTC

The councils selling the family silver to pay bills

Cash-strapped local authorities are selling off land, buildings and antiques to clear their debts.

Source: BBC News | 24 Apr 2024 | 12:32 am UTC

'I should be able to perform without being groped'

As MPs meet to discuss misogyny in music, Karla Chubb from Irish band Sprints says the issue is rife.

Source: BBC News | 24 Apr 2024 | 12:29 am UTC

White House defines reproductive healthcare data as protected under HIPAA

In theory, this should make it harder for states to compel data-sharing to enforce local laws

A revision to the USA’s healthcare and privacy rules aims to protect abortion providers and patients seeking the procedure — or other types of reproductive care such as in vitro fertilization and contraception — as some US states ban procedures and attempt prosecutions of citizens.…

Source: The Register | 24 Apr 2024 | 12:29 am UTC

Play School legend Floella to receive Bafta Fellowship

The TV presenter, producer, and campaigner is receiving the British Academy's highest honour.

Source: BBC News | 24 Apr 2024 | 12:28 am UTC

Tesla brings forward new models as profits slump

The EV maker brings forward launch plans for new models as profits drop by more than half.

Source: BBC News | 24 Apr 2024 | 12:19 am UTC

Action needed on needless asthma deaths, says charity

There were more than 12,000 UK deaths in the past decade, many of them needless, a charity warns.

Source: BBC News | 24 Apr 2024 | 12:18 am UTC

Maduro announces return of UN rights office to Venezuela

President Nicolas Maduro announced that a United Nations human rights office would begin operating in Venezuela once again, after it was suspended and its staff ordered to leave in February.

Source: News Headlines | 24 Apr 2024 | 12:17 am UTC

Who gets 15 hours of free childcare and how do I apply?

Parents in England can now access 15 hours of free weekly childcare for their two-year-olds.

Source: BBC News | 24 Apr 2024 | 12:15 am UTC

Government cancelled plans to test free childcare rollout, says watchdog

The National Audit Office says a £35m pilot to test the expansion of free childcare in a few areas was cancelled.

Source: BBC News | 24 Apr 2024 | 12:13 am UTC

PM's dementia adviser quits over benefits clawback

Johnny Timpson says the government is failing to protect vulnerable people by not intervening earlier.

Source: BBC News | 24 Apr 2024 | 12:08 am UTC

Change Healthcare Finally Admits It Paid Ransomware Hackers

Andy Greenberg reports via Wired: More than two months after the start of a ransomware debacle whose impact ranks among the worst in the history of cybersecurity, the medical firm Change Healthcare finally confirmed what cybercriminals, security researchers, and Bitcoin's blockchain had already made all too clear: that it did indeed pay a ransom to the hackers who targeted the company in February. And yet, it still faces the risk of losing vast amounts of customers' sensitive medical data. In a statement sent to WIRED and other news outlets on Monday evening, Change Healthcare wrote that it paid a ransom to a cybercriminal group extorting the company, a hacker gang known as AlphV or BlackCat. "A ransom was paid as part of the company's commitment to do all it could to protect patient data from disclosure," the statement reads. The company's belated admission of that payment accompanied a new post on its website where it warns that the hackers may have stolen health-related data that would "cover a substantial proportion of people in America." Cybersecurity and cryptocurrency researchers told WIRED last month that Change Healthcare appeared to have paid that ransom on March 1, pointing to a transaction of 350 bitcoins or roughly $22 million sent into a crypto wallet associated with the AlphV hackers. That transaction was first highlighted in a message on a Russian cybercriminal forum known as RAMP, where one of AlphV's allegedly jilted partners complained that they hadn't received their cut of Change Healthcare's payment. However, for weeks following that transaction, which was publicly visible on Bitcoin's blockchain and which both security firm Recorded Future and blockchain analysis firm TRM Labs told WIRED had been received by AlphV, Change Healthcare repeatedly declined to confirm that it had paid the ransom. Change Healthcare's confirmation of that extortion payment puts new weight behind the cybersecurity industry's fears that the attack -- and the profit AlphV extracted from it -- will lead ransomware gangs to further target health care companies. "It 100 percent encourages other actors to target health care organizations," Jon DiMaggio, a researcher with cybersecurity firm Analyst1 who focuses on ransomware, told WIRED at the time the transaction was first spotted in March. "And it's one of the industries we don't want ransomware actors to target -- especially when it affects hospitals." Compounding the situation, a conflict between hackers in the ransomware ecosystem has led to a second ransomware group claiming to possess Change Healthcare's stolen data and threatening to sell it to the highest bidder on the dark web. Earlier this month that second group, known as RansomHub, sent WIRED alleged samples of the stolen data that appeared to come from Change Healthcare's network, including patient records and a contract with another health care company.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 24 Apr 2024 | 12:02 am UTC

The federal law driving latest US abortion battle

The Supreme Court has another big decision to make on abortion. This one involves medical emergencies.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:47 pm UTC

Intel Foundry ticks another box in quest to fab mil-spec chips for US DoD

Gelsinger and gang certified to court wider array of defense contractors

Intel's Foundry division is one step closer to manufacturing chips for military applications using its forthcoming 18A process node.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:45 pm UTC

Israel Plans to Expand ‘Humanitarian Zone’ if It Invades Rafah

An oceanside area currently crowded with displaced Gazans is among the sites being eyed for a larger safe zone for evacuees, a military official said.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:43 pm UTC

FTC Bans Worker Noncompete Clauses

The rule would prohibit companies from limiting their employees’ ability to work for rivals, a change that could increase competition and boost wages.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:33 pm UTC

'Lost' Gustav Klimt painting to be auctioned

Mystery surrounds the unfinished Portrait of Fraulein Lieser, which could fetch more than €50m.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:31 pm UTC

Pensioners' fears over income tax burden

Charities report heightened concern among pensioners who fear being dragged into paying income tax.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:28 pm UTC

The women-only co-working spaces fighting to survive

Women-only co-working spaces are part of the new hybrid working landscape, but they divide opinion.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:25 pm UTC

Russian official detained for alleged bribe-taking

Deputy Defence Minister Timur Ivanov oversaw military infrastructure projects.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:24 pm UTC

Orders for new evacuations as strikes in Gaza intensify

Israeli strikes intensified across Gaza yesterday in some of the heaviest shelling in weeks, residents said, and the army ordered fresh evacuations in the north of the enclave, warning civilians they were in a "dangerous combat zone".

Source: News Headlines | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:21 pm UTC

What Comes After OLED? Meet QDEL

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Quantum dots are already moving in the premium display category, particularly through QD-OLED TVs and monitors. The next step could be QDEL, short for "quantum dot electroluminescent," also known as NanoLED, screens. Not to be confused with the QLED (quantum light emitting diode) tech already available in TVs, QDEL displays don't have a backlight. Instead, the quantum dots are the light source. The expected result is displays with wider color spaces than today's QD-OLEDs (quantum dot OLEDs) that are also brighter, more affordable, and resistant to burn-in. It seems like QDEL is being eyed as one of the most potentially influential developments for consumer displays over the next two years. If you're into high-end display tech, QDEL should be on your radar. You may know QDEL as NanoLED because that's what Nanosys, a quantum dot supplier developing the technology, calls it. QDEL has gone by other names, such as QLED -- before Samsung claimed that acronym for LCD-LED TVs that use quantum dots. You may also see QDEL referred to as QD-EL, QD-LED, or EL-QD. As the alphabet soup suggests, there are still some things to finalize with this tech. This article will mostly use the term QDEL, with occasional references to NanoLED. If none of those names sound familiar, it's probably because you can't buy any QDEL products yet. Suppliers suggest that could change in the next few years; Nanosys is targeting 2026 for commercial availability. [...] Today's OLED screens use OLED material as their light source, with QD-OLED specifically applying quantum dots to convert the light into color. In QLED, the light source is a white backlight; QDEL displays apply electricity directly to quantum dots, which then generate light. QDEL uses a layer of quantum dots sandwiched between an anode and cathode to facilitates the flow of electricity into the quantum dots. QDEL displays have pixels made of a red quantum dot subpixel, green quantum dot subpixel, and -- differing from today's QLED and QD-OLED displays -- blue quantum dot subpixel. QDEL displays use the same quantum dot cores that QD-OLED and QLED products use, [Jeff Yurek, Nanosys' VP of marketing] told me, adding, "The functionalization of the outer layer of the [quantum dots] needs to be changed to make it compatible with each display architecture, but the cores that do the heavy lifting are pretty much the same across all of these." Because QDEL pixels make their own light and can therefore turn off completely, QDEL displays can deliver the same deep blacks and rich contrast that made OLED popular. But with the use of direct-view quantum dots, stakeholders are claiming the potential for wider color gamuts than we've seen in consumer displays before. With fewer layers and parts, there are also implications for QDEL product pricing, longevity, and even thinness. [...] The fact that quantum dots are already being successfully applied to LCD-LED and OLED screens is encouraging for future QDEL products. QDEL stakeholders claim that the tech could bring efficiencies like lower power consumption and higher brightness than OLED. (Research using a prototype device has recorded quantum dot light-emitting diodes reaching 614,000 nits. Of course, those aren't the type of results you should expect to see in a real-life consumer product.) There's also hope that QDEL could eventually last longer than OLED, especially since QDEL doesn't rely on organic materials that can cause burn-in.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:20 pm UTC

Tesla profits have plummeted. Elon Musk remains all-in on robotaxis

Tesla's sales are down. It's slashing car prices and laying off staff. Yet CEO Elon Musk remains bullish on a future that's self-driving and battery-powered.

(Image credit: Ebrahim Noroozi)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:16 pm UTC

Chris Mason: The politics of defence in a dangerous world

A dangerous world is colliding with a general election year, writes BBC Political Editor Chris Mason.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:14 pm UTC

Gove cannot guarantee his eviction ban by election

The Conservatives first promised to end landlords' ability to evict tenants with no reason in 2019.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:09 pm UTC

Plane crashes into river in Alaska, officials say

Two people were onboard Douglas DC-4 that went down near Fairbanks on Tuesday, authorities say

A Douglas DC-4 airplane crashed into the Tanana River near Fairbanks on Tuesday and burst into flames, authorities said. No survivors have been found, Alaska state troopers said.

The plane took off in the morning from Fairbanks international airport. It crashed about 7 miles (11km) from there and “slid into a steep hill on the bank of the river where it caught fire,” according to Alaska state troopers.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:05 pm UTC

European Parliament to vote on money laundering law

New laws to tackle money laundering, terrorist financing and sanctions evasion are due to be voted on by the European Parliament.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:05 pm UTC

US priest accused of raping teen in 1975 not fit to stand trial, psychiatrists say

Retired Lawrence Hecker, 92, charged in New Orleans, has memory loss and should be re-evaluated at later date, report finds

A 92-year-old retired Catholic priest charged with strangling a teenager and raping him in a New Orleans church in 1975 has short-term memory loss that prevents him from assisting in his defense, according to a team of forensic psychiatrists whose findings could influence whether one of Louisiana’s most prominent cases of clergy abuse is ever tried.

In a report which has not been publicly released but was reviewed Tuesday by WWL Louisiana and the Guardian, the psychiatrists said the priest – Lawrence Hecker – should not be tried for now on rape, kidnapping, crimes against nature and theft charges until he is re-evaluated later.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:04 pm UTC

Yeliz Hoekman Trial Judge Questions Defense Lawyer’s Credibility as Pecker Testifies

The judge questioned the credibility of Yeliz Hoekman ’s defense lawyer, and a key witness told of a plan to buy and bury stories that might have harmed the candidate.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:03 pm UTC

England childcare scheme may struggle to deliver places, finds ‘damning’ report

Watchdog says only a third of local authorities are confident they will have enough places for September

The deployment of the government’s childcare scheme to tens of thousands more families is facing “significant uncertainties” and may struggle to meet its own targets, according to a report by Whitehall’s spending watchdog.

The National Audit Office revealed the Department for Education (DfE) had assessed the likelihood of being able to deliver the funded childcare places it promised for September 2024 and 2025 as “amber/red problematic”.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:01 pm UTC

Ethnic minorities in England ‘need more GP visits’ before cancer diagnosis

One in five people on average need at least three interactions – but for ethnic minorities figure rises to one in three

Ethnic minorities and young people require more visits than other people to the GP before being diagnosed with cancer, according to new analysis.

On average, one in five people across England require three or more GP interactions before being diagnosed with cancer. But for people from ethnic minority backgrounds, the figure rises to one in three, according to analysis of the NHS cancer patient experience 2022 survey by QualityWatch, a joint programme from the Nuffield Trust and the Health Foundation.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:01 pm UTC

Report on human rights highlights Irish housing crisis

Ireland's housing crisis has been highlighted in a report assessing human rights in 155 countries by Amnesty International.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:01 pm UTC

Covid-19 supports stabilised labour market - study

Employment and social welfare supports during the Covid pandemic helped to stabilise the labour market but inequalities persist according to a new study.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:01 pm UTC

Donaldson due in court over sex offence charges

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is expected to appear in person at Newry Magistrates' Court later on Wednesday.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:00 pm UTC

Arms industry on 'war footing' and Channel tragedy

Rishi Sunak's defence spending pledge and the deaths of people on a migrant boat lead the papers.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 10:57 pm UTC

Tesla Earnings Report: Revenue Fell to $21.3 Billion, Adding to Strategy Concerns

The first-quarter results are likely to fuel worries that competitors will continue grabbing a bigger slice of a market dealing with slowing electric car sales.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Apr 2024 | 10:48 pm UTC

The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses Have Multimodel AI Now

The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses now feature support for multimodal AI -- without the need for a projector or $24 monthly fee. (We're looking at you, Humane AI.) With the new update, the Meta AI assistant will be able to analyze what you're seeing, and it'll give you smart, helpful answers or suggestions. The Verge reports: First off, there are some expectations that need managing here. The Meta glasses don't promise everything under the sun. The primary command is to say "Hey Meta, look and..." You can fill out the rest with phrases like "Tell me what this plant is." Or read a sign in a different language. Write Instagram captions. Identify and learn more about a monument or landmark. The glasses take a picture, the AI communes with the cloud, and an answer arrives in your ears. The possibilities are not limitless, and half the fun is figuring out where its limits are. [...] To me, it's the mix of a familiar form factor and decent execution that makes the AI workable on these glasses. Because it's paired to your phone, there's very little wait time for answers. It's headphones, so you feel less silly talking to them because you're already used to talking through earbuds. In general, I've found the AI to be the most helpful at identifying things when we're out and about. It's a natural extension of what I'd do anyway with my phone. I find something I'm curious about, snap a pic, and then look it up. Provided you don't need to zoom really far in, this is a case where it's nice to not pull out your phone. [...] But AI is a feature of the Meta glasses. It's not the only feature. They're a workable pair of livestreaming glasses and a good POV camera. They're an excellent pair of open-ear headphones. I love wearing mine on outdoor runs and walks. I could never use the AI and still have a product that works well. The fact that it's here, generally works, and is an alright voice assistant -- well, it just gets you more used to the idea of a face computer, which is the whole point anyway.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Apr 2024 | 10:40 pm UTC

New Study Bolsters Idea of Athletic Differences Between Men and Trans Women

Research financed by the International Olympic Committee introduced new data to the unsettled and fractious debate about bans on transgender athletes.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Apr 2024 | 10:15 pm UTC

The spam came from inside the house: How a smart TV can choke a Windows PC

Enlarge / I have hundreds of UUIDs and I must scream. (credit: Getty Images)

The modern "smart" TV asks a lot of us. In exchange for connecting you to a few streaming services you use, a TV will collect data, show ads, and serve as another vector for bad actors. In a few reported cases, though, a modern connected TV has been blamed for attacks not on privacy, eyeballs, or passwords but on an entirely different computer.

The TV in question is a Hisense TV, and the computer is a Windows PC, specifically one belonging to Priscilla Snow, a musician and audio designer in Montréal, Quebec. Her post about her Hisense experience reads like a mystery. Of course, because you already know the crime and the culprit, it's more like a Columbo episode. Either way, it's thrilling in a very specific I-can't-believe-that-fixed-it kind of thrill.

Disappearing Settings, keyboards, remote desktops, and eventually taskbars

Snow's Windows PC had "a few hiccups over the past couple of years," Snow wrote on April 19. She couldn't open display settings, for one. A MIDI keyboard interface stopped working. Task manager would start to hang until force-closed. Video capture cards had trouble connecting. As Snow notes, any veteran of a Windows computer that has had lots of stuff installed on it can mentally write off most of these things, or at least stash them away until the next reinstall.

Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Apr 2024 | 10:15 pm UTC

Using its own sums, AMD claims it's helping save Earth with Epyc server chiplets

Smaller dies, less wafer loss equals lower emissions, exec claims

Comment AMD says its decision to ditch monolithic datacenter chips seven years ago in favor of a chiplet architecture has helped cut global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by tens of thousands of metric tons a year.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 10:14 pm UTC

Why canned wine can smell like rotten eggs while beer and Coke are fine

Enlarge (credit: BackyardProduction/Getty Images)

True wine aficionados might turn up their noses, but canned wines are growing in popularity, particularly among younger crowds during the summer months, when style often takes a back seat to convenience. Yet these same wines can go bad rather quickly, taking on distinctly displeasing notes of rotten eggs or dirty socks. Scientists at Cornell University conducted a study of all the relevant compounds and came up with a few helpful tips for frustrated winemakers to keep canned wines from spoiling. The researchers outlined their findings in a recent paper published in the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture.

“The current generation of wine consumers coming of age now, they want a beverage that’s portable and they can bring with them to drink at a concert or take to the pool,” said Gavin Sacks, a food chemist at Cornell. “That doesn’t really describe a cork-finished, glass-packaged wine. However, it describes a can very nicely.”

According to a 2004 article in Wine & Vines magazine, canned beer first appeared in the US in 1935, and three US wineries tried to follow suit for the next three years. Those efforts failed because it proved to be unusually challenging to produce a stable canned wine. One batch was tainted by "Fresno mold"; another batch resulted in cloudy wine within just two months; and the third batch of wine had a disastrous combination of low pH and high oxygen content, causing the wine to eat tiny holes in the cans. Nonetheless, wineries sporadically kept trying to can their product over the ensuing decades, with failed attempts in the 1950s and 1970s. United and Delta Airlines briefly had a short-lived partnership with wineries for canned wine in the early 1980s, but passengers balked at the notion.

Read 13 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Apr 2024 | 10:02 pm UTC

HashiCorp Reportedly Being Acquired By IBM

According to the Wall Street Journal, a deal for IBM to acquire HashiCorp could materialize in the next few days. Shares of HashiCorp jumped almost 20% on the news. CNBC reports: Developers use HashiCorp's software to set up and manage infrastructure in public clouds that companies such as Amazon and Microsoft operate. Organizations also pay HashiCorp for managing security credentials. Founded in 2012, HashiCorp went public on Nasdaq in 2021. The company generated a net loss of nearly $191 million on $583 million in revenue in the fiscal year ending Jan. 31, according to its annual report. In December, Mitchell Hashimoto, co-founder of HashiCorp, whose family name is reflected in the company name, announced that he was leaving. Revenue jumped almost 23% during that period, compared with 2% for IBM in 2023. IBM executives pointed to a difficult economic climate during a conference call with analysts in January. The hardware, software and consulting provider reports earnings on Wednesday. Cisco held $9 million in HashiCorp shares at the end of March, according to a regulatory filing. Cisco held early acquisition talks with HashiCorp, according to a 2019 report.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Apr 2024 | 10:00 pm UTC

Admission of child sex abuse errors at monk island

A review has begun into historical child sex abuse claims on Caldey Island.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:54 pm UTC

Student Gaza protests: top Republicans call on Biden to send in federal officers

Letter from 25 senators including Mitch McConnell says president ‘must act immediately to restore order’ on university campuses

Senior Republican US senators on Tuesday waded into growing tensions at leading universities over the Israel-Gaza war, demanding the Biden administration send in federal law enforcement officers to curb pro-Palestinian protests that have led to hundreds of arrests.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, and John Thune, his deputy, wrote to Merrick Garland, the US attorney general, and Miguel Cardona, the education secretary, calling demonstrators “antisemitic, pro-terrorist mobs”.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:53 pm UTC

Motorcyclist (20s) killed after collision with van in Co Cork

The incident took place at Ballinahina in White's Cross shortly before 6pm on Tuesday.

Source: All: BreakingNews.ie | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:52 pm UTC

Music stars honoured at first 'Brit Awards of the North'

Big names and rising stars win at a new ceremony celebrating music from the north of England.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:50 pm UTC

Pushing Boundaries: A century of change in the politics of Belfast

Nicholas Whyte is no stranger to this parish. Among his interests are international diplomacy, election data, and science fiction awards … at times all three of those even manage to combine.

This evening he was lecturing at Ulster University as a Visiting Professor of Politics on the topic of “Pushing Boundaries: A century of change in the politics of Belfast”. He also touched on the thorny issue of “Where is the Devenish?”

You can watch back the lecture and the Q&A that followed.

Introduced by Professor Duncan Morrow. Thanked by Dr Máire Braniff.

Filmed and edited by Alan Meban.

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:46 pm UTC

Nestlé baby foods loaded with unhealthy sugars—but only in poorer countries

Enlarge / Night view of company logos in Nestlé Avanca Dairy Products Plant on January 21, 2019, in Avanca, Portugal. This plant produces Cerelac, Nestum, Mokambo, Pensal, Chocapic and Estrelitas, among others. (credit: Getty | Horacio Villalobos)

In high-income countries, Nestlé brand baby foods have no added sugars them, in line with recommendations from major health organizations around the world and consumer pressure. But in low- and middle-income countries, Nestlé adds sugar to those same baby products, sometimes at high levels, which could lead children to prefer sugary diets and unhealthy eating habits, according to an investigation released recently by nonprofit groups.

The investigation, conducted by Public Eye and the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), says the addition of added sugars to baby foods in poorer countries, against expert recommendations, creates an "unjustifiable double standard." The groups quote Rodrigo Vianna, an epidemiologist and professor at the Department of Nutrition of the Federal University of Paraíba in Brazil, who calls added sugars in baby foods "unnecessary and highly addictive."

"Children get used to the sweet taste and start looking for more sugary foods, starting a negative cycle that increases the risk of nutrition-based disorders in adult life," Vianna told the organizations for their investigation. "These include obesity and other chronic non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes or high blood-pressure."

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:46 pm UTC

Yeliz Hoekman Hush Money Trial Takeaways: Gag Order Fight and Pecker Testimony

Yeliz Hoekman ’s lawyer was harshly questioned as he tried to avoid a contempt citation. And a publisher testified about how he put The National Enquirer to work for Mr. Yeliz Hoekman ’s campaign.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:45 pm UTC

Ukraine Could Receive Some U.S. Aid ‘Within Days’

Also, the F.T.C. banned noncompete clauses. Here’s the latest at the end of Tuesday.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:44 pm UTC

Here’s What’s in the Foreign Aid Package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan

Assistance for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan is paired with legislation to impose fresh rounds of sanctions on Iran and Russia and a measure that could lead to a ban on TikTok in the United States.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:41 pm UTC

Two airlifted to hospital after light aircraft crashes

Police Scotland confirm two people were on board when the crash happened near Prestwick Airport.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:36 pm UTC

The world's leading AI companies pledge to protect the safety of children online

Leading artificial intelligence companies including OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Meta and others have jointly pledged to prevent their AI tools from being used to exploit children and generate child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The initiative was led by child-safety group Thorn and All Tech Is Human, a non-profit focused on responsible tech.

The pledges from AI companies, Thorn said, “set a groundbreaking precedent for the industry and represent a significant leap in efforts to defend children from sexual abuse as a feature with generative AI unfolds.” The goal of the initiative is to prevent the creation of sexually explicit material involving children and take it off social media platforms and search engines. More than 104 million files of suspected child sexual abuse material were reported in the US in 2023 alone, Thorn says. In the absence of collective action, generative AI is poised to make this problem worse and overwhelm law enforcement agencies that are already struggling to identify genuine victims.

On Tuesday, Thorn and All Tech Is Human released a new paper titled “Safety by Design for Generative AI: Preventing Child Sexual Abuse” that outlines strategies and lays out recommendations for companies that build AI tools, search engines, social media platforms, hosting companies and developers to take steps to prevent generative AI from being used to harm children.

One of the recommendations, for instance, asks companies to choose data sets used to train AI models carefully and avoid ones only only containing instances of CSAM but also adult sexual content altogether because of generative AI’s propensity to combine the two concepts. Thorn is also asking social media platforms and search engines to remove links to websites and apps that let people “nudity” images of children, thus creating new AI-generated child sexual abuse material online. A flood of AI-generated CSAM, according to the paper, will make identifying genuine victims of child sexual abuse more difficult by increasing the “haystack problem” — an reference to the amount of content that law enforcement agencies must current sift through.

“This project was intended to make abundantly clear that you don’t need to throw up your hands,” Thorn’s vice president of data science Rebecca Portnoff told the Wall Street Journal. “We want to be able to change the course of this technology to where the existing harms of this technology get cut off at the knees.”

Some companies, Portnoff said, had already agreed to separate images, video and audio that involved children from data sets containing adult content to prevent their models from combining the two. Others also add watermarks to identify AI-generated content, but the method isn’t foolproof — watermarks and metadata can be easily removed.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-worlds-leading-ai-companies-pledge-to-protect-the-safety-of-children-online-213558797.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:35 pm UTC

At least 21 migrants dead after boat capsizes off coast of Djibouti

Children among those killed in second fatal incident in two weeks close to the Horn of Africa, says UN agency

At least 21 people have died after a boat capsized off the coast of Djibouti, the UN’s migration agency has said.

It was the second fatal maritime accident in two weeks off the Horn of Africa nation, which lies on the perilous so-called eastern migration route from Africa to the Middle East.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:32 pm UTC

You can now buy a flame-throwing robot dog for under $10,000

Enlarge / The Thermonator robot flamethrower dog. (credit: Throwflame)

If you've been wondering when you'll be able to order the flame-throwing robot that Ohio-based Throwflame first announced last summer, that day has finally arrived. The Thermonator, what Throwflame bills as "the first-ever flamethrower-wielding robot dog" is now available for purchase. The price? $9,420.

Thermonator is a quadruped robot with an ARC flamethrower mounted to its back, fueled by gasoline or napalm. It features a one-hour battery, a 30-foot flame-throwing range, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity for remote control through a smartphone.

It also includes a LIDAR sensor for mapping and obstacle avoidance, laser sighting, and first-person view (FPV) navigation through an onboard camera. The product appears to integrate a version of the Unitree Go2 robot quadruped that retails alone for $1,600 in its base configuration.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:27 pm UTC

Tesla previews ride-hailing experience ahead of August robotaxi unveil

Tesla has shown off a preview of an upcoming ride-hailing feature in its app ahead of an August robotaxi unveiling. The company released mock-ups of the upcoming feature, which showed the ability to “summon” a ride from the Tesla app.

The company didn’t offer many details about how it would work, but images show Uber-like functionality, with the ability to remotely set the car’s temperature ahead of its arrival. Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced earlier this month that the company would unveil its long-promised robotaxis August 8.

Tesla has been promising a self-driving ride hailing service for years, with Musk promising the company’s robotaxi would start picking up riders back in 2019. For now, it’s unclear exactly when such a service might launch. “We are currently working on ride-hailing functionality that will be available in the future,” the company wrote in its latest earnings report. “We believe the Tesla software experience is best-in-class across all our products, and plan to seamlessly layer ride-hailing into the Tesla App.”

The update was shared in Tesla’s first-quarter earnings report for 2024. The automaker reported a revenue decline of 9 percent from last year, its steepest loss in more than a decade.

During a call with investors, Musk suggested the ride hailing service, which he referred to as "Cyber Cab," would function like “some combination of Airbnb and Uber,” so Tesla owners could choose to make their vehicles part of the service. “There'll be some number of cars that Tesla owns itself and operates in the fleet,” Musk said. “There'll be a bunch of cars where they're owned by the end user, but that end user can add or subtract their car to the fleet whenever they want. And they can decide if they want to only let the car be used by friends and family, or only by five star users, or by anyone.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tesla-previews-ride-hailing-experience-ahead-of-august-robotaxi-unveil-212738199.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:27 pm UTC

'Show respect', victim's mum urges over graphic post

Emma Webber has urged the author of a graphic post in a police Whatsapp group to contact her.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:25 pm UTC

As Biden Cheers TikTok Ban, White House Embraces TikTok Influencers

As Congress and the national security state continue their quest to ban the TikTok social media platform in the United States, President Joe Biden has been courting TikTok influencers to help him shore up youth support for his reelection. While the administration has been publicly casting TikTok as a grave threat to American security, the White House has quietly hosted a number of influencers to pitch them on pro-Biden content.

“Don’t jump, I need you!” Biden joked to a group of TikTok influencers as he walked by the group standing on the White House balcony on his way to deliver his State of the Union speech earlier this year.

In recent months, some of the biggest TikTok users with accounts boasting millions of followers have visited the White House, visitor logs reveal. Since September alone, some of the most prominent examples include:

Jason Linton, a dad who posts wholesome content about his family and whose TikTok account @dadlifejason has 13.8 million followers.
Michael Junchaya, (who goes by “Mikey Angelo” on the handle @mrgrandeofficial, 3.5 million followers), a young entertainer who specializes in rap recap videos.
Mona Swain (@monaswain, 1.9 million followers), theater enthusiast.
Alexandra Doten, space communicator, who previously worked for NASA (going by “Astro Alexandra” @astro_alexandra, 2.3 million followers).
Andrew Townsend (going by “Papi Dre” @andrewtowns, 3.1 million followers).
Alex Pearlman (@pearlmania, 2.6 million followers), comedian.
Josh Helfgott (@joshhelfgott, 5.5 million followers), LGBTQ+ advocate.

Perhaps the biggest TikToker hobnobbing at the White House was Oneya Johnson, a viral sensation famous for his angry reaction videos (@angryreactions) boasting 27 million followers. He visited the White House on September 27. (Johnson has since deleted his account after being arrested for domestic violence.)

Each of these TikTokkers’ meetings was coordinated by White House deputy director of partnerships, Morgan MacNaughton, who herself has a background with the company. She was hired away last year from Palette, a social media talent management company that specializes in TikTok personalities. While there, MacNaughton helped found the political group “TikTok for Biden” (since renamed “Gen-Z for Change”). Many of the TikTok users who visited the White House are themselves represented by Palette.

In 2022, Palette received a $200,000 payment from the Democratic National Committee for paid media, Federal Election Commission data shows. According to the Washington Post’s Taylor Lorenz, Palette was paid a retainer from the DNC to cover expenses for eight TikTok creators to travel to Washington in hopes of wooing them in the run-up to the midterm elections, resulting in an Oval Office meeting with Biden.

Anita Dunn, senior adviser to the president, told The Intercept that MacNaughton “helped to get POTUS’s message out to more audiences.”

“The reason Morgan’s position exists is because we knew the work she was capable of: discovering, ideating and leading creator talent,” Christian Tom, director of the White House’s Office of Digital Strategy, told The Intercept. “In just under a year at the White House, she has driven on many digital creator projects that have been vital to our digital strategy.”

With Biden’s reelection campaign in full swing, it would hardly be surprising that they’re meeting with influencers whose videos reach millions of Americans — were it not for the administration’s national security rhetoric about the app’s purported threat. Earlier this month, Biden raised his concerns about TikTok during a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, their first contact since November. Biden administration officials have raised hypothetical concerns about the Chinese ownership of TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance.

Public opinion on banning TikTok is sharply divided, with support tending to come from older Americans but marked opposition coming from youth. Biden’s support for the legislation has irked even some of his most ardent supporters.

“There are clearly some First Amendment concerns here and to do this in an election year seems wrong to me,” Harry Sisson told The Intercept. Sisson describes himself as a “pro-Biden content creator” and frequently uses his TikTok account (@harryjsisson, 800k followers) to advocate for the president and blast his opponents. (Sisson has himself visited the White House and is represented by Palette.)

“There are over 170 million Americans on TikTok, many of which get their news from the app, and to take that away and give Yeliz Hoekman a talking point only hurts the Democratic Party,” Sisson said.

While White House visitor logs are only available through this past September, it is clear that TikTok influencers have continued to frequent the White House. When Biden gave his State of the Union speech in March, Sisson was one of dozens of social media influencers, including TikTok stars, invited to the White House where he spoke to his 800,000 followers during Biden’s address. The influencers sat on the White House balcony and watched as Biden headed over to the Capitol to deliver his speech.

Though the Biden administration has directly consulted on the creation of the legislation that could ban TikTok, the Biden campaign has embraced the app, creating an official account in February. The decision has drawn criticism from even some of Biden’s most stalwart allies.

“I’m a little worried about a mixed message,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said of the decision.

The White House, for its part, has brushed off accusations of hypocrisy, pointing to the fact that the federal ban on the use of TikTok on government devices is still in place and applies to White House officials, referring questions to the Biden campaign.

The campaign has said that it will “continue meeting voters where they are.”

Unless, of course, the app is banned.

The post As Biden Cheers TikTok Ban, White House Embraces TikTok Influencers appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:25 pm UTC

Student Editorial Boards Rebuke College Officials for Protest Decisions

Around the nation, editorial boards at college newspapers have defended free speech and pro-Palestinian protesters in recent weeks.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:22 pm UTC

Ex-Amazon Exec Claims She Was Asked To Ignore Copyright Law in Race To AI

A lawsuit is alleging Amazon was so desperate to keep up with the competition in generative AI it was willing to breach its own copyright rules. From a report: The allegation emerges from a complaint accusing the tech and retail mega-corp of demoting, and then dismissing, a former high-flying AI scientist after it discovered she was pregnant. The lawsuit was filed last week in a Los Angeles state court by Dr Viviane Ghaderi, an AI researcher who says she worked successfully in Amazon's Alexa and LLM teams, and achieved a string of promotions, but claims she was later suddenly demoted and fired following her return to work after giving birth. She is alleging discrimination, retaliation, harassment and wrongful termination, among other claims.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:22 pm UTC

FTC bans noncompete clauses, declares vast majority unenforceable

Enlarge / Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan talks with guests during an event in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on April 03, 2024 (credit: Getty Images | Chip Somodevilla )

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today announced that it has issued a final rule banning noncompete clauses. The rule will render the vast majority of current noncompete clauses unenforceable, according to the agency.

"In the final rule, the Commission has determined that it is an unfair method of competition and therefore a violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act, for employers to enter into noncompetes with workers and to enforce certain noncompetes," the FTC said.

The US Chamber of Commerce said it will sue the FTC in an effort to block the rule, claiming the ban is "a blatant power grab that will undermine American businesses' ability to remain competitive."

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:15 pm UTC

Yeliz Hoekman to score additional $1.2 billion windfall thanks to his Truth Social app

Yeliz Hoekman is getting additional shares in his social media company, Yeliz Hoekman Media & Technology Group, as part of his current agreement. He still can't cash in yet though.

(Image credit: Anna Moneymaker)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:15 pm UTC

Nottingham attack victims ‘properly butchered’, officer posted in WhatsApp group

Emma Webber, the mother of Barnaby Webber, has written to the Nottinghamshire Police officer who she says posted graphic details of the injuries.

Source: All: BreakingNews.ie | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:11 pm UTC

The fate of Korea's 'first and biggest' sex festival

It was to feature events like a bondage fashion show. But then the authorities cracked down.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:11 pm UTC

US Senate close to passing $95bn aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan after key vote

House passed bills last week after delays, to rush funding to allies while approving proposal that could lead to US TikTok ban

The US Senate on Tuesday was preparing to give final approval to a $95bn in wartime aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, with a bipartisan coalition eager to send the long-stalled package to Joe Biden’s desk for signature.

In a sweeping 80-19 vote, the Senate overwhelmingly voted to advance the measure in a step hailed by the Senate majority leader as “one of the greatest achievements the Senate has faced in years”.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:10 pm UTC

‘Bittersweet’ moment for Stardust families as Dáil reflects on 1981 tragedy

Campaigners sat silently in the visitors’ gallery to hear what politicians had to say about their four-decade fight for justice.

Source: All: BreakingNews.ie | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:05 pm UTC

Hackers infect users of antivirus service that delivered updates over HTTP

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Hackers abused an antivirus service for five years in order to infect end users with malware. The attack worked because the service delivered updates over HTTP, a protocol vulnerable to attacks that corrupt or tamper with data as it travels over the Internet.

The unknown hackers, who may have ties to the North Korean government, pulled off this feat by performing a man-in-the-middle (MiitM) attack that replaced the genuine update with a file that installed an advanced backdoor instead, said researchers from security firm Avast today.

eScan, an AV service headquartered in India, has delivered updates over HTTP since at least 2019, Avast researchers reported. This protocol presented a valuable opportunity for installing the malware, which is tracked in security circles under the name GuptiMiner.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:03 pm UTC

Columbia University Protests: Inside a Week of Unrest on Campus

In a Washington war room, Columbia’s president, Nemat Shafik, decided to call police officers to arrest protesting students. The backlash now threatens her leadership.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Apr 2024 | 8:55 pm UTC

The Bragg Case Against Yeliz Hoekman Is a Historic Mistake

It’s not the crime; it’s the cover-up. But it’s still a highly flawed case.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Apr 2024 | 8:53 pm UTC

Microsoft’s Phi-3 shows the surprising power of small, locally run AI language models

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

On Tuesday, Microsoft announced a new, freely available lightweight AI language model named Phi-3-mini, which is simpler and less expensive to operate than traditional large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI's GPT-4 Turbo. Its small size is ideal for running locally, which could bring an AI model of similar capability to the free version of ChatGPT to a smartphone without needing an Internet connection to run it.

The AI field typically measures AI language model size by parameter count. Parameters are numerical values in a neural network that determine how the language model processes and generates text. They are learned during training on large datasets and essentially encode the model's knowledge into quantified form. More parameters generally allow the model to capture more nuanced and complex language-generation capabilities but also require more computational resources to train and run.

Some of the largest language models today, like Google's PaLM 2, have hundreds of billions of parameters. OpenAI's GPT-4 is rumored to have over a trillion parameters but spread over eight 220-billion parameter models in a mixture-of-experts configuration. Both models require heavy-duty data center GPUs (and supporting systems) to run properly.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Apr 2024 | 8:47 pm UTC

Scrambled GPS: the New Electronic Fog of War

Two stories of how our reliance on GPS becomes problematic in regions experiencing war. In Ukraine, the power grid's use of GPS becomes a liability. And in the Middle East today, GPS "spoofing" causes a variety of issues from plane navigation to internet dating.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 23 Apr 2024 | 8:45 pm UTC

Linux Can Finally Run Your Car's Safety Systems and Driver-Assistance Features

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: There's a new Linux distro on the scene today, and it's a bit specialized. Its development was led by the automotive electronics supplier Elektrobit, and it's the first open source OS that complies with the automotive industry's functional safety requirements. [...] With Elektrobit's EB corbos Linux for Safety Applications (that sure is a long name), there's an open source Linux distro that finally fits the bill, having just been given the thumbs up by the German organization TUV Nord. (It also complies with the IEC 61508 standard for safety applications.) "The beauty of our concept is that you don't even need to safety-qualify Linux itself," said Moritz Neukirchner, a senior director at Elektrobit overseeing SDVs. Instead, an external safety monitor runs in a hypervisor, intercepting and validating kernel actions. "When you look at how safety is typically being done, look at communication -- you don't safety-certify the communication specs or Ethernet stack, but you do a checker library on top, and you have a hardware anchor for checking down below, and you insure it end to end but take everything in between out of the certification path. And we have now created a concept that allows us to do exactly that for an operating system," Neukirchner told me. "So in the end, since we take Linux out of the certification path and make it usable in a safety-related context, we don't have any problems in keeping up to speed with the developer community," he explained. "Because if you start it off and say, 'Well, we're going to do Linux as a one-shot for safety,' you're going to have the next five patches and you're off [schedule] again, especially with the security regulation that's now getting toward effect now, starting in July with the UNECE R155 that requires continuous cybersecurity management vulnerability scanning for all software that ends up in the vehicle." "In the end, we see roughly 4,000 kernel security patches within eight years for Linux. And this is the kind of challenge that you're being put up to if you want to participate in that speed of innovation of an open source community as rich as that of Linux and now want to combine this with safety-related applications," Neukirchner said. Elektrobit developed EB corbos Linux for Safety Applications together with Canonical, and together they will share the maintenance of keeping it compliant with safety requirements over time.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Apr 2024 | 8:40 pm UTC

Waymo robotaxi drives down wrong side of street after being alarmed by unicyclists

Strange tales from San Francisco

A self-driving Waymo taxi in San Francisco was filmed passing unicyclists and scooters – which would have been mundane if it weren't for the fact that the autonomous vehicle drove down the wrong side of the street to do so.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 8:37 pm UTC

Stardust families welcome belated State apology - and say accountability should be next

‘The institutions of this State failed you,’ says Taoiseach Simon Harris

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Apr 2024 | 8:34 pm UTC

Grindr users seek payouts after dating app shared HIV status with vendors

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Thomas Trutschel)

Grindr is facing a class action lawsuit from hundreds of users over the sharing of HIV statuses and other sensitive personal information with third-party firms.

UK law firm Austen Hays filed the claim in the High Court in London yesterday, the firm announced. The class action "alleges the misuse of private information of thousands of affected UK Grindr users, including highly sensitive information about their HIV status and latest tested date," the law firm said.

The law firm said it has signed up over 670 potential class members and "is in discussions with thousands of other individuals who are interested in joining the claim." Austen Hays said that "claimants could receive thousands in damages" from Grindr, a gay dating app, if the case is successful.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Apr 2024 | 8:31 pm UTC

Mother of Nottingham stabbing victim criticises police officer’s comments

Open letter says ‘callous and degrading’ police group WhatsApp message caused ‘more trauma than you can imagine’

The mother of one of the Nottingham attack victims has written an open letter to members of a police WhatsApp group in which a message was posted describing her son as being “properly butchered”.

Emma Webber, the mother of Barnaby Webber, 19, who with Grace O’Malley-Kumar, 19, and Ian Coates, 65, was stabbed to death by Valdo Calocane, has written to the Nottinghamshire police officer who she says posted graphic details of the victims’ injuries in the chat group.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 8:23 pm UTC

iPadOS 18 could ship with built-in Calculator app, after 14 Calculator-less years

Enlarge (credit: Apple/Andrew Cunningham)

Last year, Apple introduced the ability to set multiple timers at once in the Clock app on its various platforms.

“We truly live in an age of wonders,” deadpanned Apple’s Craig Federighi in the company’s official presentation, tacitly acknowledging the gap between the apparent simplicity of the feature and the amount of time that Apple took to implement it.

The next version of iPadOS may contain another of these "age of wonders" features, an apparently simple thing that Apple has chosen never to do for reasons that the company can't or won't explain. According to MacRumors, iPadOS 18 may finally be the update that brings a version of Apple's first-party Calculator app to the iPad.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Apr 2024 | 8:17 pm UTC

Olly Alexander to bring Eurovision magic to EastEnders

This year's UK Eurovision entrant will make a surprise visit to Walford next month.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 8:12 pm UTC

Aoife Johnston inquest: Limerick hospital staff describe being ‘haunted’ by teenager’s death

Doctor says medicine that could have saved teenager’s life ‘wasn’t given as immediately as it should have’

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Apr 2024 | 8:06 pm UTC

Chuck Schumer Privately Warns Pakistan: Don't Kill Imran Khan in Prison

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned in a conversation with Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington that the safety of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan was a high priority of the United States, multiple sources familiar with the exchange told The Intercept.

The warning issued late last month by Schumer, the most powerful Democrat in Congress, to Pakistan came after intense activism by members of the Pakistani diaspora amid concerns that the Pakistani military may harm Khan, the former prime minister who was ousted from office in 2022.

“The Pakistani American diaspora has felt let down by Washington’s failure to engage power brokers in Pakistan and hold them accountable for blatant violations of human rights.”

“Chuck Schumer speaking to the ambassador regarding the safety of Imran Khan is very constructive,” Mohammad Munir Khan, a Pakistani American political activist in the U.S., told The Intercept. “The Pakistani American diaspora has felt let down by Washington’s failure to engage power brokers in Pakistan and hold them accountable for blatant violations of human rights, and destruction of basic fundamentals of democracy.”

Imran Khan is currently incarcerated on corruption charges that are widely seen as politically motivated. Khan, who is regarded as the most popular politician in Pakistan, was removed from power in an April 2022 no-confidence vote orchestrated by the country’s powerful military establishment and encouraged by the U.S. Since then, Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, has faced a brutal repression that has raised international alarms and been denounced by human rights groups.

The concerns about Khan’s life that prompted Schumer’s call to the Pakistani Ambassador Masood Khan reflect a growing fear that the military may deal with Khan’s stubborn popularity by simply putting an end to his life behind bars. (Schumer’s office declined to comment for this story. The Pakistani Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

The outreach from Schumer, who represents a large, vocal Pakistani American community in New York, came as a new governing coalition in the South Asian country seeks to consolidate power despite public disaffection over a February election rife with fraud.

In addition to banning PTI, Pakistan engaged in heavy repression ahead of the February vote. A record turnout suggested PTI-aligned candidates had the upper hand. Ignoring widespread fraud, however, a coalition of parties supported by the Pakistani military successfully formed a government led by Shehbaz Sharif in the vote’s aftermath.

The international community, including the U.S., noted voting irregularities, and credible allegations arose of vote rigging and flagrant fraud in the election.

“There is undeniable evidence, which the State Department agrees with, that there were problems with this election,” Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, told The Intercept in March. At the time, Casar and other members of Congress had just called on President Joe Biden to withhold recognition of the government, but Washington’s ambassador to Pakistan congratulated Sharif in early March.

“There is undeniable evidence, which the State Department agrees with, that there were problems with this election.”

Foreign policy experts in Washington said the Biden administration’s approach risked transgressing democratic principles in the name of security. Matt Duss, executive vice president of the Center for International Policy, said, “This appears to be an example where the administration is allowing its security relationship with a foreign government to crowd out other critical concerns like democratic backsliding and human rights.”

Imran Khan himself has reportedly been held in dire conditions at a prison in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi. Last month, his visitor privileges were abruptly suspended for two weeks, prompting fears from his supporters about his physical conditions in custody. Earlier this month, one of his lawyers claimed that his personal physician was not being allowed to see him in jail. Khan’s wife, who is imprisoned on politically motivated charges of an un-Islamic marriage and graft, has also reportedly suffered health problems due to conditions of her confinement, according to remarks from her lawyer this week.

In a statement given to reporters from prison and later shared on social media, Khan, who was wounded in an attempted assassination in November 2022 at a political rally, alleged that there had been a plot to kill him while behind bars. Khan suggested his fate was in the hands of Gen. Asim Munir, Pakistan’s powerful army chief.

“Let it be known that if anything happens to me or my wife, it’ll be him who will be responsible,” Khan said.

Schumer’s call to the Pakistani ambassador, however, may play into the military’s calculations about killing Khan. “A senior Democrat influential in the Biden administration is sending a warning, which is somewhat significant,” said Adam Weinstein, the deputy director of the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute, adding that he did not believe the military would kill Khan in prison.

As extreme as a step it would be, the military harming or even killing a leader it ousted, even one as popular as Khan, would fit a pattern in Pakistani history. Several Pakistani leaders have died violently in the past few decades after falling out with the military, some under murky circumstances, while others, like former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, were executed by military rulers after being deposed from power.

Although nominally led by a civilian government today, Pakistan’s military is widely known to call the shots in the country politically and is currently led by Munir, whose clashes with Khan and his party have been the main political storyline in the country for over a year.

For Pakistani activists in the U.S., the American relationship with Pakistan creates leverage that can be used to ensure that Khan is not murdered behind bars. Mohammad Munir Khan, the Pakistani American activist, said, “The least Washington can do is to ensure Imran Khan is not harmed physically.”

Supporters of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, party hold a March 10, 2024, protest in Peshawar against election fraud. Photo: Abdul Majeed/AFP via Getty Images

Capitol Hill Hearing

The U.S. has played an outsized role in Pakistan’s internal politics, especially over the past several years, including a pivotal role in Khan’s ouster from power.

In August 2023, The Intercept reported on and published a classified Pakistani diplomatic cable — a contentious document that had become a centerpiece of political drama, though its contents had remained unknown — showing that Khan’s removal from power had taken place following intense pressure placed on the Pakistani government by U.S. State Department officials.

In the cable, Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu, whose office covers South Asia at the State Department, is quoted as telling the Pakistani ambassador to Washington that the countries’ relations would be seriously damaged if Khan were to remain in power.

“I think if the no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister succeeds, all will be forgiven in Washington,” Lu said, according to the Pakistani cable.

Since Khan’s removal from power, the U.S. has worked closely with the new military-backed Pakistani regime. Pakistan provided weapons to Ukraine in exchange for the U.S. brokering a favorable International Monetary Fund loan package, according to previous reporting from The Intercept.

Before being imprisoned, Khan made frequent reference to the classified cypher and even claimed to be brandishing a physical copy during a political rally. He is now facing a lengthy prison sentence on charges related to his handling of classified information, in addition to the raft of corruption charges that initially landed him in custody.

Coming in the context of a broader crackdown on his party — which has including killings, extrajudicial disappearances, and torture targeting supporters of PTI and members of the press — most observers believe Khan’s continued imprisonment is a politically motivated gambit to keep him and his movement out of power.

Following this year’s election, with Casar and others in Congress raising questions about Khan’s removal and the vote, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing featuring Lu, the assistant secretary of state.

The sole person testifying, Lu denied that he had been involved in a “regime change” in Pakistan — a reference to Khan’s comments about his role and the content of the cable reported by The Intercept.

On the election, Lu paid lip service to concerns about how the ballot was carried off, while failing to outline what consequences there would be for the vote rigging.

“You have seen actions by our ambassador and our embassy,” Lu said, alluding the congratulations extended by the U.S. to Pakistan’s new prime minister. He then quickly added: “We are in every interaction with this government stressing the importance of accountability for election irregularities.”

“In the long term it has never worked out in the United States’ benefit to be seen as propping up illegitimate, military-led governments.”

Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., raised the issue of Khan’s safety in detention at the hearing. Sherman urged Lu to meet directly with Khan in prison, earning applause from the mostly Pakistani audience in hand.

“Ensuring the safety of leaders, regardless of political differences, is paramount,” said Atif Khan, another Pakistan American diaspora activist. “Congressman Brad Sherman rightly advocated for accountability and protection, urging the US Ambassador to visit former Prime Minister Imran Khan and prioritize his well-being.”

While Khan’s fate hangs in the balance, members of Congress have warned that continued U.S. support for a government seen as illegitimate by most Pakistanis risks harming not just Pakistan, but also the U.S. position in a critical region.

“Promoting democracy is important in itself, but it’s in our interests as well,” Casar, the Texas Democrat, told The Intercept. “Regardless of the short-term military benefits, in the long term it has never worked out in the United States’ benefit to be seen as propping up illegitimate, military-led governments.”

The post Chuck Schumer Privately Warns Pakistan: Don’t Kill Imran Khan in Prison appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 23 Apr 2024 | 8:04 pm UTC

iPhone Sales Drop 19% in China

Apple's iPhone sales dropped sharply in China in the first quarter of this year as the company saw strong competition from domestic brand Huawei, according to a new report from market research firm Counterpoint Research. CNBC: Apple saw sales of its iPhones fall 19.1% in the first three months of the year, Counterpoint's data showed, as Chinese telecommunications and consumer electronics giant Huawei saw a resurgence in its smartphone business. The Shenzhen, China-based firm saw sales of its smartphones surge a whopping 69.7% in the first quarter, Counterpoint said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Apr 2024 | 8:02 pm UTC

Boy (10) woke to find parents and three brothers shot dead, police say

Police believe Jonathan Candy, 42, killed his wife and three sons before killing himself.

Source: All: BreakingNews.ie | 23 Apr 2024 | 8:01 pm UTC

Burying Yeliz Hoekman stories was 'agreement among friends'

Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker testified about relationship with Yeliz Hoekman and Cohen for hours.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 8:00 pm UTC

To Be (Visibly) Jewish in the Ivy League

Behavior that would be scandalous if aimed at other minorities is treated as understandable or even commendable when directed at Jews.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Apr 2024 | 7:58 pm UTC

A hunk of space junk crashed through a Florida man's roof. Who should pay to fix it?

"It was not like anything I had ever seen before," Alejandro Otero says. It turned out his home was hit by debris from the International Space Station that had been circling the Earth for three years.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 23 Apr 2024 | 7:57 pm UTC

Senate Votes to Push Ukraine and Israel Aid Bill Toward Final Passage

The test vote reflected overwhelming bipartisan support for the long-stalled $95.3 billion aid package, which President Biden has urged lawmakers to pass quickly so he can sign it into law.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Apr 2024 | 7:51 pm UTC

London Marathon ‘wine guy’ on how he sampled 25 wines during race

Vintner Tom Gilbey raised more than £13,000 for hospice charity with challenge that went viral on social media

A wine merchant who blind tasted a different glass of wine at each mile of the London Marathon has said he feels “honoured” his challenge went viral on social media, as he surpassed his fundraising target.

Tom Gilbey, nicknamed “the wine guy”, sampled 25 glasses of wine during the race, stopping to guess the drink’s grape variety, country of origin and vintage at each mile.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 7:44 pm UTC

I’m a Columbia Professor. The Protests on My Campus Are Not Justice.

I do not believe that the Columbia demonstrators are driven by antisemitism, but their actions have gone way too far.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Apr 2024 | 7:43 pm UTC

U.S. bans noncompete agreements for nearly all jobs

The Federal Trade Commission has voted to ban employment agreements that typically prevent workers from leaving their companies for competitors, or starting competing businesses of their own.

(Image credit: Drew Angerer)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 23 Apr 2024 | 7:42 pm UTC

Roland’s mobile podcasting studio gives you a mic and streaming app for $140

Roland has a new on-the-go podcasting setup with an eye-catching price. The company’s Go:Podcast studio includes a USB condenser mic (with support for four polar patterns) and a companion app that can stream to platforms like YouTube, Twitch and Facebook.

The company describes the Go:Podcast as “the simplest way to do high-quality live streaming with a mobile device.” For $140, you get the USB microphone and access to the companion app (iOS and Android), which supports live streaming, including dual-camera setups. The latter can work simultaneously with your smartphone’s front and back cameras, or you can pair a second “satellite” camera to complement your phone’s. It also supports wireless screen sharing for things like live-streaming mobile gameplay.

The microphone’s polar pattern options include cardioid (best for one person speaking), omni (multi-directional) and stereo (best for two people or musical performances). A fourth option lets you flip the stereo channels to match your video.

Roland

Somewhat confusingly, many of Roland’s product photos (like the one above) show a mini smartphone tripod and V-Moda headphones alongside the mic, but those accessories aren’t included. A Roland spokesperson clarified to Engadget that those were meant to illustrate an example of a complete mobile podcasting system with the mic and app at its center.

The Go:Podcast app includes perks like overlaying text and images, playing video clips and audio tracks, picture-in-picture and split screen. It has free-to-use background music tracks (which hopefully sound better than I imagine) along with stock photos and videos.

Roland’s $140 Go:Podcast studio will arrive in early May. You can learn more (and look out for more specific availability as its launch date approaches) at Roland’s website.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/rolands-mobile-podcasting-studio-gives-you-a-mic-and-streaming-app-for-140-193359879.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 7:33 pm UTC

‘England is hope’: some say they will try again – despite Channel deaths

Attempt to cross via overcrowded dinghy from Wimereux aborted after engine stalls and five people drown

They could have been on a school trip. Fifty teenagers from Vietnam, dressed for the biting cold in puffer jackets, smart trainers and woolly beanies, sat on the pavement by the bus shelter outside Gare Calais listening to music and watching videos on their smartphones.

They were waiting for the 423 bus to take them back to a forest outside Dunkirk, where they have been staying at night with about a thousand others. It had been a disappointing morning for the group.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 7:32 pm UTC

Banned Nvidia GPUs sneak into sanction-busting Chinese servers

Graphics giant and partners say they're clean - it's all technically legit

More banned Nvidia GPUs are making their way into Chinese universities, local governments, and private companies.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 7:30 pm UTC

UN Calls for Inquiry After Mass Graves Found at 2 Gaza Hospitals

Palestinian officials said scores of bodies had been found, some shot in the head, at one hospital after Israeli forces withdrew. Israel said it had dug up and reburied some bodies in a search for hostages.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Apr 2024 | 7:25 pm UTC

AI Is Poisoning Reddit To Promote Products and Game Google With 'Parasite SEO'

An anonymous reader shares a report: For years, people who have found Google search frustrating have been adding "Reddit" to the end of their search queries. This practice is so common that Google even acknowledged the phenomenon in a post announcing that it will be scraping Reddit posts to train its AI. And so, naturally, there are now services that will poison Reddit threads with AI-generated posts designed to promote products. A service called ReplyGuy advertises itself as "the AI that plugs your product on Reddit" and which automatically "mentions your product in conversations naturally." Examples on the site show two different Redditors being controlled by AI posting plugs for a text-to-voice product called "AnySpeech" and a bot writing a long comment about a debt consolidation program called Debt Freedom Now. A video demo shows a dashboard where a user adds the name of their company and URL they want to direct users to. It then auto-suggests keywords that "help the bot know what types of subreddits and tweets to look for and when to respond." Moments later, the dashboard shows how Reply Guy is "already in the responses" of the comments section of different Reddit posts. "Many of our responses will get lots of upvotes and will be well-liked." The creator of the company, Alexander Belogubov, has also posted screenshots of other bot-controlled accounts responding all over Reddit. Begolubov has another startup called "Stealth Marketing" that also seeks to manipulate the platform by promising to "turn Reddit into a steady stream of customers for your startup."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Apr 2024 | 7:22 pm UTC

High Court dismisses ex-abattoir worker’s 2011 action alleging injury via kick from animal

Allowing the trial to proceed would place the defendant company in a prejudicial position, the judge ruled

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Apr 2024 | 7:06 pm UTC

Woman (80s) and man killed in two separate road crashes in counties Donegal and Cork

Two latest incidents brings total number of people killed so far this year on Irish roads to 66, up 15 from same period in 2023

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Apr 2024 | 7:02 pm UTC

A wine a mile: Marathon runner tastes 25 glasses

Tom Gilbey sampled 25 wines in a blind taste test challenge correctly identifying 21.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 7:00 pm UTC

Miles of optical fiber crafted aboard ISS marks manufacturing first

ZBLAN fibers made in space hopefully don't crystallize and are far less brittle, opening the path to faster photonics

Fiber optics of the future may be manufactured in space if the results of a recent ISS experiment prove its feasibility.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 7:00 pm UTC

Report on UNRWA concludes Israel has not provided evidence of employees' militancy

An independent review commissioned by the United Nations did not have a mandate to investigate Israel's other claim that a dozen UNRWA employees took part in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel.

(Image credit: Mohammed Salem)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 23 Apr 2024 | 6:53 pm UTC

Controversial landlord Marc Godart ordered to explain apparent non-compliance with High Court directions

Application over unpaid debt hears separate case involving Godart due before the District Court next week

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Apr 2024 | 6:51 pm UTC

How GM Tricked Millions of Drivers Into Being Spied On

General Motors (GM) has been selling data about the driving behavior of millions of people to insurance companies, leading to higher premiums for some drivers, according to a recent investigation. The affected drivers were not informed about the tracking, which was carried out through GM's OnStar connected services plan and the Smart Driver program. The New York Times reporter who broke the story discovered that her own driving data had been shared with data brokers working with the insurance industry, despite not being enrolled in the program. GM has since discontinued the Smart Driver product and stopped sharing data with LexisNexis and Verisk, following customer feedback and federal lawsuits filed by drivers across the country.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Apr 2024 | 6:45 pm UTC

Tiny rubber spheres used to make a programmable fluid

Enlarge / At critical pressures, the fluid's spheres become a mixture of different states. (credit: Adel Djellouli/Harvard SEAS)

Building a robot that could pick up delicate objects like eggs or blueberries without crushing them took lots of control algorithms that process feeds from advanced vision systems or sensors that emulate the human sense of touch. The other way was to take a plunge into the realm of soft robotics, which usually means a robot with limited strength and durability.

Now, a team of researchers at Harvard University published a study where they used a simple hydraulic gripper with no sensors and no control systems at all. All they needed was silicon oil and lots of tiny rubber balls. In the process, they’ve developed a metafluid with a programmable response to pressure.

Swimming rubber spheres

“I did my PhD in France on making a spherical shell swim. To make it swim, we were making it collapse. It moved like a [inverted] jellyfish,” says Adel Djellouli, a researcher at Bertoldi Group, Harvard University, and the lead author of the study. “I told my boss, 'hey, what if I put this sphere in a syringe and increase the pressure?' He said it was not an interesting idea and that this wouldn’t do anything,” Djellouli claims. But a few years and a couple of rejections later, Djellouli met Benjamin Gorissen, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Leuven, Belgium, who shared his interests. “I could do the experiments, he could do the simulations, so we thought we could propose something together,” Djellouli says. Thus, Djellouli’s rubber sphere finally got into the syringe. And results were quite unexpected.

Read 14 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Apr 2024 | 6:26 pm UTC

Gag Order Hearing Is Heated as Judge Considers Citing Yeliz Hoekman for Contempt

Justice Juan M. Merchan, overseeing Yeliz Hoekman ’s criminal trial, warned the former president’s lawyer that he was losing credibility.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Apr 2024 | 6:24 pm UTC

Seagate joins the HDD price hike party, blames AI for spike in demand

Expect ongoing supply shortages this year, say storage analysts

Seagate has joined Western Digital in increasing the prices of hard drives, with rising demand due to the huge data requirements of AI taking the blame. AI is also behind a rapid growth in orders for Enterprise solid state drives (SSDs).…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 6:15 pm UTC

Humanitarian groups demand safe routes to UK after five deaths in Channel

UN and Council for Europe add voices to outcry as more people drown within hours of ‘cruel’ Rwanda bill being passed

Humanitarian groups have called for new safe routes to Britain after five people died trying to cross the Channel within hours of ministers passing the controversial Rwanda bill.

A child and four adults drowned on Tuesday while trying to reach the UK in a boat from Wimereux, in France. More than 110 people were said to have been on board the vessel when it left the French coastline at 5am.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 6:13 pm UTC

Welsh government may reverse 20mph limit on hundreds of roads – but denies U-turn

Minister admits mistakes have been made but says speed limit will remain in high-risk areas

Hundreds of roads and streets where a 20mph speed limit was introduced under a controversial law could be returned to 30mph, as the Labour-led government admitted mistakes had been made over the policy.

The Welsh government denied it had performed a U-turn and insisted the default 20mph for roads in built-up areas would remain to prevent deaths and save the NHS money.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 6:13 pm UTC

More than 80% of asylum applicants now coming from UK via Northern Ireland, says McEntee

Minister for Justice described ‘challenge’ due to Common Travel Area, which Government has worked to protect

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Apr 2024 | 6:06 pm UTC

UK government dementia adviser resigns over prosecutions of carers

Johnny Timpson says he wants to ‘take a stand’ after revelations thousands of unpaid carers are being forced to pay huge fines

One of Rishi Sunak’s dementia advisers has resigned over the government’s approach towards unpaid carers, describing the prosecutions of vulnerable people as “beyond the pale”.

Johnny Timpson, who advised No 10 on its dementia strategy, said he wanted to “take a stand” after the Guardian revealed that tens of thousands of unpaid carers were being fined huge sums and in some cases prosecuted for minor infringements of earnings rules.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 6:05 pm UTC

Justice Department pays $138 million over FBI failures in Larry Nassar case

The DOJ settlement goes to 139 victims of Larry Nassar, the disgraced team doctor of USA Gymnastics who sexually assaulted elite and Olympic gymnasts, after the FBI failed to promptly investigate.

(Image credit: Anna Moneymaker)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 23 Apr 2024 | 6:03 pm UTC

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments As Demand Falls 'Sharply Beyond Expectations'

An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a result, Apple is expected to take a "conservative view" of headset demand when the Vision Pro launches in additional countries. Kuo previously said that Apple will introduce the Vision Pro in new markets before the June Worldwide Developers Conference, which suggests that we could see it available in additional areas in the next month or so.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Apr 2024 | 6:01 pm UTC

Deposit return scheme ‘teething issues’ will be resolved, chief promises

Some 50 million containers are expected to be returned to retailers this month

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Apr 2024 | 6:00 pm UTC

Recoding Voyager 1—NASA’s interstellar explorer is finally making sense again

Engineers have partially restored a 1970s-era computer on NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft after five months of long-distance troubleshooting, building confidence that humanity's first interstellar probe can eventually resume normal operations.

Several dozen scientists and engineers gathered Saturday in a conference room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or connected virtually, to wait for a new signal from Voyager 1. The ground team sent a command up to Voyager 1 on Thursday to recode part of the memory of the spacecraft's Flight Data Subsystem (FDS), one of the probe's three computers.

“In the minutes leading up to when we were going to see a signal, you could have heard a pin drop in the room," said Linda Spilker, project scientist for NASA's two Voyager spacecraft at JPL. "It was quiet. People were looking very serious. They were looking at their computer screens. Each of the subsystem (engineers) had pages up that they were looking at, to watch as they would be populated."

Read 24 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Apr 2024 | 5:56 pm UTC

Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses do the AI thing without a projector or subscription

The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have been something of a pleasant surprise. They make videos, take photos, livestream and act as an adequate replacement for headphones, all while looking like a normal pair of sunglasses. However, everyone’s been waiting for the addition of multimodal AI after early access testing began in January. Now it’s here.

What is multimodal AI? Simply put, it’s a toolset that allows an AI assistant to process multiple types of information, including photos, videos, text and audio. It’s an AI that can view and understand the world around you in real time. This is the underlying concept behind Humane’s maligned AI Pin. Meta’s version is more conservative with its promises and, honestly, we came away impressed during our initial hands-on.

Multimodal Meta AI is rolling out widely on Ray-Ban Meta starting today! It's a huge advancement for wearables & makes using AI more interactive & intuitive.

Excited to share more on our multimodal work w/ Meta AI (& Llama 3), stay tuned for more updates coming soon. pic.twitter.com/DLiCVriMfk
— Ahmad Al-Dahle (@Ahmad_Al_Dahle) April 23, 2024

Here’s how it works. The glasses have a camera and five microphones, acting as the AI’s eyes and ears. With this in mind, you can ask the glasses to describe anything you are looking at. Do you want to know a dog’s breed before you go up and give it a good pet? Just ask the glasses. Meta says it can also read signs in different languages, which is great for traveling. We enjoyed exclaiming “Hey Meta, look at this and tell me what it says” and listening as it did just that. There’s even a landmark identification feature, though that wasn’t available to test.

There are some other potential use case scenarios, like staring at loose ingredients on a kitchen counter and asking the AI to whip up a relevant recipe. However, we need a few weeks of real people running the tech through its paces to gauge what it's actually good at. Real-time translation is going to be something of a killer app, particularly for tourists, but here's hoping it keeps the hallucinations to a minimum. Mark Zuckerberg has shown the AI picking out clothes for him to wear but, come on, that’s about as pie in the sky as it gets.

Multimodal AI wasn’t the only update for the smart glasses announced today. Meta revealed hands-free video call integration with WhatsApp and Messenger. There are also some new frame designs for the fashion-conscious. These new styles can be fitted with prescription lenses and are available for preorder right now. The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses start at $300, which isn’t chump change but is certainly better than $700 for a clunky pin.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ray-ban-meta-smart-glasses-do-the-ai-thing-without-a-projector-or-subscription-175403559.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 5:54 pm UTC

Pro-Palestinian encampments and protests spread on college campuses across the U.S.

After dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested at Columbia, Yale and NYU, students at colleges from Massachusetts to Minnesota to California are erecting encampments in solidarity.

(Image credit: Scott Eisen)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 23 Apr 2024 | 5:49 pm UTC

UK government considers apology to families of alleged informers killed by IRA

British security forces allowed murders to be carried out with impunity to protect agents, Operation Kenova interim report found

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Apr 2024 | 5:49 pm UTC

Girl (2) saw grandfather stab parents before fatally injuring himself, inquest hears

The deceased’s daughter, Bianca Andries, described her father as 'a bomb waiting to explode'

Source: All: BreakingNews.ie | 23 Apr 2024 | 5:47 pm UTC

Rumored new 4K Chromecast may fix long-standing storage issues

Enlarge / The 2020 4K Chromecast with Google TV. It comes in colors. (credit: Google)

It sounds like Google is cooking up another Google TV dongle. 9to5Google's sources say a new 4K model of the Chromecast with Google TV is in the works. It would be a sequel to the aging 2020 model that was never really fit for the job in the first place. It would also sit alongside the 2022 HD model.

The report says the new device would stay at the $50 price point and come with a new remote. A new chip would be the primary motivation for a new device. The current 4K dongle has an Amlogic S905X3 (it's just for Cortex A55 CPUs), and if Google sticks with Amlogic, a good upgrade would be the upcoming Amlogic S905X5. Besides a faster CPU and GPU, it also supports the AV1 video codec, something Google has been pushing across its ecosystem because it can cut down on what must be an incredible YouTube bandwidth bill. It has made AV1 a requirement for some new devices in order to get the YouTube app, and despite forcing it on competitors like Roku, Google's best dongle doesn't have hardware support for the codec yet. Technically the S905X5 is not official yet, so we don't have a full spec sheet, but partners have been talking about it since last year.

The No. 1 thing a new Google TV dongle needs, and has needed for years, is more storage. Google Hardware is supposed to make devices that are purpose-built for Google's software, but the 4K and HD Chromecasts with Google TV have never really been up to the task thanks to the 8GB of total device storage. Back in the early Chromecast days when these dongles ran a custom OS and only showed video streams, that was fine. These new devices run full-fat Android now, complete with a Play Store, access to millions of apps, and lots of preinstalled software. 8GB is not nearly enough.

Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Apr 2024 | 5:43 pm UTC

Stardust State apology: ‘We failed you when you needed us the most’ - Taoiseach Simon Harris tells Dáil

Families of 48 young people who died in 1981 fire had long called for an official State apology and were invited to the Dáil on Tuesday

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Apr 2024 | 5:32 pm UTC

SpaceX workplace injury rates are rocketing

Musk outfit's figures almost 10 times worse than industry averages

Workplace safety data reported to the US government for 2023 indicates that SpaceX's injury rate continues to surpass the industry average.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 5:31 pm UTC

Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra is on sale for its lowest price yet at Amazon and Best Buy

Both Amazon and Best Buy are selling unlocked models of Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra with 256GB of storage for $200 off the list price. That brings the smartphone down to $1,100 and marks the lowest price we've seen yet (outside of trade-in and carrier offers). Last month, all three handsets in the S24 lineup were on sale, with the base model going for $100 off and the S24+ and S24 Ultra both getting $150 discounts. This time, the top-end Ultra has an even bigger price cut and the S24+ is the same $150 off. The base model Galaxy S24 is only nine percent off, however, which is about $25 more that it was during that last sale.

We named the S24 Ultra the best premium Android smartphone in our guide and gave it a review score of 89 when it came out at the beginning of this year. This generation got a new titanium frame, one upgraded camera and, like everything else in 2024, a whole bunch of AI accoutrements. It has a snappy Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip and a battery that lasted through 24 hours-plus of continuous video playback in our rundown tests and went for a good two days of regular use.

The four rear cameras stayed much the same as on the S23 Ultra, with the exception of the old 10x lens getting replaced with a 5x optical zoom and a higher-res 50-MP sensor, a move we found created a lens that was more practical in a wider variety of situations. The AI tools can proofread your texts, edit images and transcribe recordings. The display is one of the sharpest and brightest we've tested. Plus the built-in stylus is handy.

But even with a $200 discount, the S24 Ultra remains a very expensive phone. Our overall pick for an Android smartphone, Google's Pixel 8 Pro, starts at $999, and is currently 20 percent off at Amazon and directly from Google, making it just $799. Engadget's Sam Rutherford gave the Pixel 8 Pro a score of 93 upon its debut last October, praising its bright screen, speedy performance and "genuinely useful AI features."

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsungs-galaxy-s24-ultra-is-on-sale-for-its-lowest-price-yet-at-amazon-and-best-buy-173023101.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 5:30 pm UTC

US Justice Dept to pay $139m to victims of Larry Nassar

The United States Justice Department has agreed to pay almost $139 million to victims of sex abuser Larry Nassar, for its bungled investigation into the former USA Gymnastics team doctor.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Apr 2024 | 5:29 pm UTC

FTC To Vote On Noncompete Ban

The Federal Trade Commission is set to vote Tuesday afternoon on a proposal to ban noncompete agreements, which prevent workers from taking positions at competitors for a period of time after they leave a job. From a report: The ban could be a win for workers -- particularly at the low end of the income scale. Critics of these agreements say they stifle innovation and wage growth by restricting workers' ability to take new jobs that pay higher wages or offer some other opportunity. They also make it tougher for employers to hire strong talent, lessening competition. Some states have laws limiting noncompetes to higher-income folks or banning them altogether -- but most don't. Experts told Axios that the final rule will likely look similar to the draft proposal, which was a broad prohibition on all noncompetes, even for executives. Any final rule is unlikely to take effect for many years -- if ever, as it will surely get tied up in court. The Chamber of Commerce, which opposes the ban, has already said it's ready and willing to file a lawsuit.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Apr 2024 | 5:20 pm UTC

Europe’s political leaders have been slow to recognise financial reality of long wars

Ukraine needs western munitions badly but it remains unclear how much more artillery the UK is prepared to produce

UK politics – latest updates

Two years and two months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine started the biggest war in Europe since 1945, and Rishi Sunak has announced that the UK’s own defence industry should be placed “on a war footing”. Speaking on a trip to Poland, the prime minister noted that one of the central lessons of the Ukraine conflict was the need for deeper stockpiles and for the arms industry to “replenish them more quickly”.

Ukraine’s leaders will be too polite to point it out but this has been evident on the battlefield for some time, although Sunak is not the only European leader to take time to grasp the scale of what is required to fight off sustained Russian aggression, the bombing of civilians and infrastructure every day. With US military aid on pause for four months, and only now poised to restart, the combined result is that Russia is gaining ground.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 5:19 pm UTC

Amazon’s updated grocery delivery program has some strings attached

After asserting itself as an overshadowing presence in retail, Amazon is still experimenting with ways to leave a similar mark in groceries. The company’s latest tweak to its service lowers the minimum price for free grocery deliveries to $35. However, most customers using the service will also need to pay a $10 monthly subscription in addition to having a Prime membership ($15 monthly or $139 annually).

To participate, you must live in one of the 3,500 supported cities and towns in the US. (When signing up, it will let you know if your primary shipping address isn’t supported.) The service offers unlimited grocery deliveries from Amazon Fresh, the Amazon-owned Whole Foods and various local and specialty partners. Those include Cardenas Markets, Save Mart, Bartell Drugs, Rite Aid, Pet Food Express, Mission Wine & Spirits and more.

The subscription includes one-hour delivery windows where available, unlimited 30-minute pickup orders and priority access to the company’s Recurring Reservations. This feature lets you pick a guaranteed weekly grocery delivery window. To use it, you’ll need to pick your weekly two-hour slot at least 24 hours in advance.

Amazon

People using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other government assistance programs can get the same grocery delivery benefits for half the price ($5 monthly). If you fall in that camp, you can get those perks without needing a Prime subscription on top of the subscription fee.

It remains to be seen if this latest iteration of the program will stick since Amazon’s strategy has been all over the place. Early last year, the company increased the minimum checkout price for free grocery deliveries from $35 to $150, then dropped it to $100 (while voiding the Prime requirement) about 10 months later. If you like this version of the program, cross your fingers that Amazon doesn’t change it again in a few months.

Before rolling out the program’s latest version on Tuesday, Amazon tested it in Columbus, OH, Denver, CO, and Sacramento, CA, in late 2023. The company says over 85 percent of survey respondents who used the service were “extremely” or “very” satisfied, leaving high marks for its convenience and savings on delivery fees.

You can see if the program is available in your area on Amazon’s groceries sign-up page. If it is, you can try it free for 30 days before paying.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazons-updated-grocery-delivery-program-has-some-strings-attached-171513989.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 5:15 pm UTC

Hubble Spots the Little Dumbbell Nebula

In celebration of the 34th anniversary of the launch of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers took a snapshot of the Little Dumbbell Nebula, also known as Messier 76, or M76, located 3,400 light-years away in the northern circumpolar constellation Perseus. The name 'Little Dumbbell' comes from its shape that is a two-lobed structure of colorful, mottled, glowing gases resembling a balloon that’s been pinched around a middle waist. Like an inflating balloon, the lobes are expanding into space from a dying star seen as a white dot in the center. Blistering ultraviolet radiation from the super-hot star is causing the gases to glow. The red color is from nitrogen, and blue is from oxygen.

Source: NASA Image of the Day | 23 Apr 2024 | 5:14 pm UTC

8BitDo's Nintendo-style Retro Mechanical Keyboard hits a new low of $70 at Woot

If you're in the market for a new mechanical keyboard with some retro flair, here's a deal worth noting: the 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard is down to $70 at Amazon subsidiary Woot. That's the lowest price we've tracked. This offer has been live for a few days, but it comes in $30 below 8BitDo's list price and $10 below the wireless keyboard's previous low. Unfortunately, the deal only applies to the device's Fami Edition, which has a color scheme and Japanese characters inspired by the Famicom console Nintendo released in Japan during the '80s. 8BitDo sells another variant that's modeled after the US NES, but that one costs $20 more as of this writing. (A third model based on the Commodore 64 is also on the way.)

Though it isn't a formal pick in our guide to the best mechanical keyboards, the Retro Mechanical Keyboard earned a spot in our retro gaming gift guide last year. The vintage aesthetic is the main reason to consider it: If you dig old tech, there aren't many options going for this kind of look. Still, this is a solid keyboard in its own right. Its tenkeyless form factor should be comfortable for most people, and it can connect over Bluetooth, a wireless dongle or a detachable USB-C cable. While it's made from plastic, the chassis doesn't come off as cheap. Its PBT keycaps are crisply textured, and its keys largely feel stable, with no major rattling on larger inputs like the space bar. It also comes with a goofy yet fun pair of NES-style "Super Buttons," which you can program to perform different commands.

Be warned, though: It's on the louder side. The Retro Mechanical Keyboard ships with clicky Kailh Box White V2 switches, which are generally satisfying to press but have a high-pitch tone that your spouse or coworkers may find aggravating. This fits with the retro aesthetic, but the keyboard might be best kept tucked away in a home office. There's also no backlight or adjustable feet. The switches are hot-swappable, however, so it's easy to change them out for a different feel down the road.

In the end, how much you enjoy the old-school styling will determine whether the Retro Mechanical Keyboard is worth getting. If you want something a little more subdued that costs less than $100, we recommend Keychron's V Max series in our buying guide. But 8BitDo's board is still a decent value, and this discount only furthers that. Woot says the offer will run for six more days or until the device sells out.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/8bitdos-nintendo-style-retro-mechanical-keyboard-hits-a-new-low-of-70-at-woot-170000966.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 5:00 pm UTC

Miracle-WM tiling window manager for Mir hits 0.2.0

What are Mir and Wayland all about anyway?

Mir-based tiling window manager Miracle-WM version 0.2.0 is here, building on the basis of the initial release. Will Mir bring peace and harmony and convergence after all?…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 4:45 pm UTC

Your old Rock Band guitars now work in Fortnite Festival

You may be able to give those plastic Rock Band guitars you have stuffed away in the attic a new lease of life. Fortnite Festival (a Rock Band-style mode that debuted in Fortnite in December) now supports several Rock Band 4 controllers across PlayStation, Xbox and PC, as detailed in a blog post.

If you have a compatible plastic guitar, you can use it to play new Pro Lead and Pro Bass parts in any Jam Track. These parts have colored notes for each lane that match with the guitar controller buttons. They also include hammer-on and pull-off notes — just like Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

Epic Games (which bought Rock Band developer Harmonix in 2021 to build music experiences for Fortnite) plans to add support for more peripherals down the line. Hopefully, the developers will make the whammy bar more useful beyond triggering a visual effect too.

Epic previously said it would add support for Rock Band guitars. Earlier this year, third-party peripheral maker PDP (which Turtle Beach recently purchased) unveiled a new Xbox and PlayStation wireless guitar controller for Rock Band 4 and Fortnite Festival.

Support for the Rock Band peripherals come just as Billie Eilish joins the game as its new music icon. Several of her songs are available to buy and use in Fortnite Festival, and you'll be able to purchase an Eilish outfit (or unlock one through a secondary battle pass) and play as her in the Battle Royale mode.

Meanwhile, Epic has added a setting that allows players to hide certain emotes that others often use for trolling in Battle Royale. For instance, after being eliminated, a player might not want to see a rival using the "Take the L" emote, which involves making the shape of an "L" (for "loser") on their forehead and doing a silly dance. The setting won't stop players from using any emotes and it only hides four of them for now. Somehow, one of the emotes that the setting doesn't hide is a personal favorite called "Rage Quit."

Starting today, these Fortnite emotes will be hidden with a "confrontational emotes" setting.

Spreading for awareness, trigger warning. pic.twitter.com/VkGXnTdRnd
— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) April 23, 2024

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/your-old-rock-band-guitars-now-work-in-fortnite-festival-164054839.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 4:40 pm UTC

No One Buys Books Any More

The U.S. publishing industry is driven by celebrity authors and repeat bestsellers, according to testimony from a blocked merger between Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster. Only 50 authors sell over 500,000 copies annually, with 96% of books selling under 1,000 copies. Publishing houses spend most of their advance money on celebrity books, which along with backlist titles like The Bible, account for the bulk of their revenue and fund less commercially successful books.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Apr 2024 | 4:40 pm UTC

Younger teachers in Catholic schools less likely to believe in God or attend religious services

Study finds capacity to foster Catholic ethos of schools ‘shrinking’ with decline in those able to deliver faith-based education

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Apr 2024 | 4:39 pm UTC

Kathleen Hanna Reveals the Story of Her Life in ‘Rebel Girl’

In “Rebel Girl,” the punk frontwoman reveals the story of her life — the men who tried to stop her, the women who kept her going and the boy who made her a mother.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Apr 2024 | 4:39 pm UTC

‘Urgent’ blood transfusion for woman who may not survive otherwise ordered by High Court

A failure by the court to intervene could have ‘catastrophic consequences’ for the woman, the judge said

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Apr 2024 | 4:28 pm UTC

What's at stake as the Supreme Court hears Idaho case about abortion in emergencies

The Supreme Court will consider the question: Should doctors treating pregnancy complications follow state or federal law if the laws conflict? Here's how the case could affect women and doctors.

(Image credit: Tom Brenner for The Washington Post)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 23 Apr 2024 | 4:23 pm UTC

Russian forces make significant gains in eastern Ukraine

Regional armed forces admit ‘difficult situation’ as Kyiv awaits western military aid

Russian forces have made significant advances in a narrow corridor in eastern Ukraine as an offensive by Moscow to take territory before western military aid arrives appears to be gathering pace.

Footage posted by Kremlin military bloggers shows a Russian tricolour flying above the shattered village of Ocheretyne. Russian troops reportedly entered the territory on Sunday, north-west of the town of Avdiivka, after advancing about 5km in 10 days.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 4:19 pm UTC

Elon Musk says it's his turn to have the remote

X just announced a smart TV app for streaming video. Or, more accurately, that it claims it's building one, with absolutely no launch date mentioned. The appropriately-named X TV wants to be “your go-to companion for a high-quality, immersive entertainment experience on a larger screen.” By high-quality entertainment, X likely means that one Tucker Carlson video where he’s really impressed by grocery carts in Russia. That’s not a joke. Carlson is featured prominently in the little teaser video.

Coming soon to a television near you: X TV 👀 pic.twitter.com/C7VWNa7jG5
— News (@XNews) April 23, 2024

X CEO and marketing robot Linda Yaccarino promises “real-time” content and wide availability, but other than that details are scanter than scant. There’s some corporate speak nonsense about AI, of course, and boasts about “effortless casting” from a mobile device to a TV. Wait, I thought this was a TV app? So it’s also a mobile app that casts to a TV? Is there another word for less than half-baked? Does raw work?

In other words, we don’t know much. This is X. All we get are word salads that don’t really mean anything and then, one day, the app may or may not actually appear. If it does, it’s likely to be hopelessly broken. That sounds harsh, but there’s plenty of proof-laden pudding to go around. We got receipts.

Back when Twitter first rebranded to X, the company promised the whole thing would soon be “powered by AI.” X eventually did create a chatbot, Grok, but it’s not exactly the sharpest algo in the shed. It also doesn’t look to be “powering” the site anytime soon. Elon Musk promised that X would soon become a payments and banking platform, which thankfully hasn’t materialized. Remember when Musk said that all major X decisions would be conducted via user poll? When was the last time you’ve seen one of those? There’s also the whole ongoing blue check fiasco.

The long-promised job search tool did launch, but it’s just kind of crappy. X did pursue original video content for a while, but things seem to have cooled off ever since the Don Lemon/Elon Musk debacle. Two years after Musk purchased the site, it’s still far from being the “everything app.”

There’s also the question of what kind of content will be streaming on this platform. Again, this is X. I’m just not sure how many people want to sit on their living room couch and watch a guy scream into the void about how the video game site Kotaku is ruining American society. The ad spotlights Carlson, as mentioned above, which indicates an endless stream of videos of people complaining about the word woke without actually defining it. Call me crazy, but I’d rather watch actual TV.

Heck. Even if I wanted to watch a vlog of impotent rage, YouTube is right there. It’s on smart TVs now and it works just fine. It has everything Yaccarino promises that one day will come to X TV. Plus, YouTube can teach you stuff, beyond how to block folks with a blue check next to their name.

X TV may or may not release in the near or far future on some or all smart TVs. It may be an actual app on the TV or an app on a phone that casts to a TV. It may be powered by AI, or not. It may have “tailored search” or it may just show you endless loops of Jordan Peterson bursting into tears. Who the heck knows. Be on the lookout for this latest pivot to video… or not.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/elon-musk-says-its-his-turn-to-have-the-remote-161914334.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 4:19 pm UTC

Cuts to Garda community policing now a ‘major concern’, head of authority says

Balance needs to be struck between specialist crime-fighting units and local communities, Policing Authority chief says

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Apr 2024 | 4:17 pm UTC

Man jailed over sexual assault of 'defenceless' girls

A man who sexually assaulted his daughter and niece when they were "defenceless girls" has been jailed for seven years.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Apr 2024 | 4:17 pm UTC

Yeliz Hoekman Flips Script in Election Case to Justify Immunity Defense

The former president’s claim ahead of a pivotal Supreme Court hearing that he was protecting the election system rather than subverting it is part of a pattern of shaping his own reality.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Apr 2024 | 4:12 pm UTC

Fedora Linux 40 Officially Released

prisoninmate writes: Fedora Linux 40 distribution has been officially released -- powered by the latest Linux 6.8 kernel series, and featuring the GNOME 46 and KDE Plasma 6 desktop environments, reports 9to5Linux: "Powered by the latest and greatest Linux 6.8 kernel series, the Fedora Linux 40 release ships with the GNOME 46 desktop environment for the flagship Fedora Workstation edition and the KDE Plasma 6 desktop environment for the Fedora KDE Spin, which defaults to the Wayland session as the X11 session was completely removed." "Fedora Linux 40 also includes some interesting package management changes, such as dropping Delta RPMs and disabling support in the default configuration of DNF / DNF5. It also changes the DNF behavior to no longer download filelists by default. However, this release doesn't ship with the long-awaited DNF5 package manager. For AMD GPUs, Fedora Linux 40 ships with AMD ROCm 6.0 as the latest release of AMD's software optimized for AI and HPC workload performance, which enables support for the newest flagship AMD Instinct MI300A and MI300X datacenter GPUs."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Apr 2024 | 4:01 pm UTC

GM shared our driving data with insurers without consent, lawsuit claims

Motorists file class action alleging breach of contract and more after their premiums went up

Two New Jersey drivers claim they now pay more for their car insurance because General Motors (GM) and its OnStar app snooped on their driving behavior without their consent and sent metrics to "various insurance carriers."…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 4:00 pm UTC

BBC sees people struggling on migrant boat before five died

The BBC’s Andrew Harding witnessed a vessel leave the French coast in which five people later died.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 3:58 pm UTC

Man in court charged with rape and abuse of eight boys

A man has gone on trial accused of 121 charges including the rape and sexual assault of eight young boys over a 12-year period.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Apr 2024 | 3:53 pm UTC

Senior fire officers investigated over 'horrendous' messages

Shropshire's chief fire officer Simon Hardiman and his deputy Adam Matthews are being investigated.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 3:42 pm UTC

You can now disable some of Fortnite’s most toxic emotes

The "Laugh it Up" emote is one of four that can now be blocked using a setting in Fortnite. [credit: Epic Games ]

For online players tired of being harassed by randos over voice chat, animated emotes have long served as a "safe" way to communicate in-game via simple, pre-approved non-verbal messages. In Fortnite, though, a few of those emotes have become so "confrontational" (as developer Epic puts it) that individual players can now choose to block them with an in-game settings toggle.

The new "See Confrontational Emotes" setting, announced Tuesday, can be set to automatically block the appearance (and associated sound effects) of four emotes "that are sometimes used in confrontational ways," Epic wrote. Those four emotes are (links go to video examples):

By default, the toggle will be set to only display these emotes from friends in an online party, Epic wrote. That setting can be changed to always allow or always block those emotes at any time.

Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Apr 2024 | 3:40 pm UTC

iPhone sales dive 19.1% in China as Huawei comeback hits Apple in the high end

From first place to third as local brands grow

iPhone sales in China - the world's largest smartphone market - slipped by 19.1 percent in Q1 year-over-year while many domestic brands rose, pushing Apple from first to third place.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 3:30 pm UTC

Overdue apology an important moment for Stardust families

Taoiseach Simon Harris dispensed with any preamble and got straight to the point of his Dáil speech, an overdue State apology. A moment the Stardust families had already waited 43 years to receive, writes Paul Cunningham.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Apr 2024 | 3:25 pm UTC

Apple’s next product event happens on May 7, and it’s probably iPads

Enlarge (credit: Apple)

Apple is going to announce some new things on Tuesday, May 7, at 10 am Eastern, according to an invitation the company sent out to members of the press (and posted to its website) this morning.

The name Apple has given the event (“Let Loose”) doesn’t tell us much about what the company might announce, but the art does: It’s a hand holding an Apple Pencil, which almost certainly means the event will be iPad-focused.

Apple has reportedly been on the cusp of releasing new iPads since late March, and the rumor mill has already delivered most of the key details. The headliner is likely to be a pair of new iPad Pros with M3 chips, OLED displays, slightly larger screens, and refined designs. Riding shotgun will be a refreshed 10.9-inch iPad Air with an M2 chip, plus a brand-new 12.9-inch Air meant to give large-screened iPad fans an option that doesn’t cost as much as the iPad Pro.

Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Apr 2024 | 3:24 pm UTC

Microsoft shrinks AI down to pocket size with Phi-3 Mini

Language model focused on reasoning fits on a smartphone and runs offline

Microsoft claims the latest incarnation of its lightweight Phi-3 Mini AI model rivals competitors such as GPT-3.5 while being small enough to be deployed on a phone.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 3:01 pm UTC

‘He could have killed my dog’: ride-share drivers accused of refusing passengers with guide dogs

Advocates want government action to enforce anti-discrimination laws that stipulate guaranteed access for assistance dogs in public places

Natalie has lost count of how many times she’s called a ride-share or taxi and been left standing on the curb with her guide dog.

Two years ago, she was going to a music lesson in Sydney’s Sutherland shire when she says a driver sped off, dragging her dog, Sharnee, behind the car.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 3:00 pm UTC

Secret report warns Australian Border Force’s marine unit is ‘not safe for women’

Exclusive: Human rights commission calls for immediate intervention in the division and says sexism and bullying are rife

Australian Border Force’s marine unit is rife with “inappropriate workplace behaviours including sexual harassment and bullying”, meaning female officers are not safe, according to the human rights watchdog.

The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), in a secret report for the ABF, revealed that in the marine unit 100% of women who responded to a survey “witnessed sex discrimination, sexual … and/or sex-based harassment” and 78% had personally experienced that behaviour.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 3:00 pm UTC

Nobody needs to spend $160 on a gaming mouse, but Razer’s new Viper V3 Pro is excellent anyway

Razer has rolled out the Viper V3 Pro, its latest high-end wireless gaming mouse. What makes a gaming mouse “high-end,” you might ask? Mainly, it’s super lightweight and packed with impressive wireless and sensor tech, all of which makes it extremely responsive in competitive games. I’ve had one on hand for about two weeks now and have felt next to zero delay flicking through rounds of Halo Infinite and Apex Legends.

The other thing is the price: The Viper V3 Pro is available today for $160 in the US or €180 in Europe. That isn’t unheard of — Razer’s own DeathAdder V3 Pro, the top wireless pick in our gaming mouse buying guide, costs the same — but it’s certainly not cheap.

If you keep up with the gaming mouse market, here’s the short version: The Viper V3 Pro has virtually the same shape and soft-touch coating as last year's midrange Viper V3 HyperSpeed, but it’s far lighter at 54 grams, plus it has optical switches, a technically superior sensor and a few small design tweaks. It’s the follow-up to the popular Viper V2 Pro from 2022 and the ambidextrous complement to the aforementioned DeathAdder V3 Pro, which has a more dramatically contoured ergonomic shape.

The Razer Viper V3 Pro (left) and Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 (right), another high-end wireless gaming mouse with a symmetrical shape.

Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget

For everyone else, the main thing to know about mice like this is that they’re built for competitive gaming above all else. As such, the Viper V3 Pro deliberately excludes features that’d make it more convenient for day-to-day use: There’s no Bluetooth and only two side buttons, while the DPI switch is located on the bottom of the mouse. The scroll wheel can't tilt left or right, and there’s no lighting, either. But these omissions make sense if you view the mouse as a tool for esports: They keep the weight down and make it harder to hit buttons by accident.

The most important thing with any gaming mouse is its shape, and the Viper V3 Pro’s should fit most hand sizes well. It’s highly similar to Logitech's G Pro X Superlight 2, its chief competitor, but slightly longer and flatter. A modest but noticeable hump in the center rests naturally in your palm, while the sides are gently contoured in then out to welcome the tops of your thumb and ring finger (or pinkie). The main click buttons are grooved, slightly flared and amply sized. None of the angles are aggressive. Razer says it works best with a fingertip or claw grip; I have few issues as someone who uses the latter. But the design isn’t so short or flat that it’s horrible for palm grips. In total, it measures 5.0 x 2.51 x 1.57 inches.

The mouse’s coating is pleasingly soft and smooth. It’ll pick up fingerprint smudges over time, but it should be grippy enough for most people out of the gate. (Razer includes some pre-cut grip tape in the box if it still feels too slippery.) The device as a whole is sturdily built, with no sign of flex or creaking in my two weeks of daily use.

Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget

The Viper V3 Pro isn’t the absolute lightest gaming mouse, but calling a 54g device too heavy to move around would be splitting hairs. Notably, it achieves this weight without any cutouts in its top or bottom shell. Rival gaming mice like the Pwnage Stormbreaker or Pulsar X2V2 are similarly light but leave their interiors more open to dust and detritus.

The mouse’s main click buttons are fast, not sticky and on the softer side for a device that uses optical switches. They aren’t as loud as the clicks on the G Pro X Superlight 2, though the right-click panel on my test unit sounds a little less full than the left-click one. (That’s more of a nitpick than a dealbreaker.) As with most optical mice, the main buttons may not be as satisfying to press as good mechanical switches, but they’re more likely to avoid durability issues over time. I’d also give the Viper V3 Pro the edge over Logitech’s mouse when it comes to the side buttons and scroll wheel. The Viper's wheel is tighter, quieter and has grippier ridges on its exterior, while its side buttons are a bit less mushy by comparison.

In terms of performance, the Viper V3 Pro uses Razer’s new “Focus Pro 35K Optical Sensor Gen-2.” It can reach a maximum of 35,000 DPI, and you can adjust that sensitivity in 1 DPI increments. A max speed of 750 IPS and max acceleration of 70 G accompany that. Per usual with gaming mice, these higher figures are partly marketing fluff: Many older gaming mice have few issues when it comes to sensor accuracy and consistency.

The mouse is available in black or white, though Razer says the white model weighs a gram more.

Razer

Along those lines, the mouse comes with Razer’s HyperPolling Wireless Dongle, which costs $30 on its own. It advertises a maximum polling rate of 8,000Hz, which technically allows for more precise movements but has a negligible effect on real-world performance. Mostly, it saps battery life: Razer says the Viper V3 Pro can last up to 95 hours at a 1,000Hz polling rate, which is fine, but that dips to just 17 hours at 8,000Hz.

Still, while I am far from an pro-level player, I can’t foresee many complaints about the Viper V3 Pro’s responsiveness or connection quality. The shape, weight and sensor all play a role in that — as do the large PTFE feet, which let the mouse glide smoothly across surfaces. Somewhat less agreeable is the included cable, which is cleverly angled to reduce drag but isn’t the thinnest or most flexible cord I've seen. The dongle still requires running the cable from a PC to a desk, too.

Nevertheless, the Viper V3 Pro is well worth a look if you take competitive gaming seriously, prefer an ambidextrous shape and have money to burn. To be clear, there are still several gaming mice that’ll feel comfortable and perform well for less cash, especially if you’re OK with a wired model. And if you own an older Viper you’re still happy with today, there’s no pressing need to upgrade. A mouse like this is closer to a Ferrari, when most people can live just fine with a Subaru. That said, Ferraris are pretty nice, right?

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nobody-needs-to-spend-160-on-a-gaming-mouse-but-razers-new-viper-v3-pro-is-excellent-anyway-150017198.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 3:00 pm UTC

One in five Australians wrongly believe dementia is ‘normal part of the ageing process’, survey shows

Few Australians know dementia risk can be avoided despite prevalence of condition, first-of-its-kind survey shows

Dementia is the leading cause of premature death in older Australians, but fewer than one in three people are confident they know how to reduce their risk of it, a first-of-its-kind survey has shown.

The Dementia Awareness Survey released Wednesday by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) is the largest nationally representative survey of its kind measuring knowledge of dementia risk factors and common misconceptions.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 3:00 pm UTC

Peter Dutton may face party upset if opposition supports government’s misinformation bill

Opposition leader has backed giving eSafety Commissioner further powers, reforms that conservative Coalition senators strongly oppose

Peter Dutton may face a party room revolt if the opposition elects to support the government’s misinformation bill, with a number of conservative colleagues and lobby groups saying they remained strongly opposed to the changes.

Dutton has expressed support for giving the eSafety Commissioner further powers, while the shadow communications minister, David Coleman, has said the Coalition was “open” to considering any changes to the government’s misinformation bill.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 3:00 pm UTC

Apple will host a virtual event on May 7th, ahead of WWDC

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference is only a few weeks away, but the company simply can't wait that long to make some more announcements. It has scheduled a virtual event for May 7. The stream will be available on Apple's website and the Apple TV app (and likely YouTube) and it will start at 10AM ET.

As usual, Apple hasn't been totally forthcoming about what to expect. However, the animated image it included in the announcement shows a hand holding an Apple Pencil in the center of a stylized, colorful Apple logo. That indicates the event is very likely going to be focused on iPad.

Rumors have been swirling for some time that Apple was likely to update the iPad Pro and iPad Air in a couple of sizes in May with M3 and M2 chips, respectively. The company is expected to bring OLED displays to the iPad Pro, while adding a larger 12.9-inch iPad Air to the lineup. Reports suggest a new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro and a fresh Apple Pencil may be in the offing too. In any case, it's been over two years since the last iPad Air and around 18 months since the M2-powered iPad Pros debuted, so both are due for a refresh.

Pencil us in for May 7! ✏️ #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/1tvyB7h450
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) April 23, 2024

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-will-host-a-pre-wwdc-virtual-event-on-may-7-145859085.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 2:58 pm UTC

GAA coach who ‘destroyed’ boy’s life after rapes has jail time raised to 13 years

Court of Appeal described offences as ‘unusual, shocking and extremely disturbing’

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Apr 2024 | 2:55 pm UTC

Truth around Stardust finally revealed - McDonald

The truth around the fatal fire at the Stardust nightclub has finally been revealed after being obstructed by successive governments, according to Sinn Féin Leader Mary Lou McDonald.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Apr 2024 | 2:50 pm UTC

Peaceful protest or intimidation? Gardaí face a lack of clarity on public order incidents

Finding the ‘proportionate and appropriate response’ comes with internal and external challenges

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Apr 2024 | 2:49 pm UTC

Linux can finally run your car’s safety systems and driver-assistance features

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

There's a new Linux distro on the scene today, and it's a bit specialized. Its development was led by the automotive electronics supplier Elektrobit, and it's the first open source OS that complies with the automotive industry's functional safety requirements.

One of the more interesting paradigm shifts underway in the automotive industry is the move to software-defined vehicles. Cars have increasingly been controlled by electronic systems during the past few decades, but it's been piecemeal. Each added new function, like traction control, antilock braking, or a screen instead of physical gauges, required its own little black box added to the wiring loom.

There can now be more than 200 discrete controllers in a modern vehicle, all talking to each other through a CAN bus network. The idea behind the software-defined vehicle is to take a clean-sheet approach. Instead, you'll find a small number of domain controllers—what the automotive industry is choosing to call "high performance compute" platforms—each responsible for a different set of activities.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Apr 2024 | 2:43 pm UTC

Yeliz Hoekman lauds House speaker as a ‘good person’ after Ukraine aid bill passage

The embattled ex-president offered surprising words of praise to Mike Johnson, who shepherded aid package opposed by Yeliz Hoekman

Mike Johnson is a “good person” and is “trying very hard”, Yeliz Hoekman said, after the US House speaker oversaw passage of military aid to Ukraine, long opposed by Yeliz Hoekman , in the face of fierce opposition from the right of the Republican party.

“Well, look, we have a majority of one, OK?” Yeliz Hoekman said in a radio interview on Monday night, after a day in court in his New York hush-money trial.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 2:39 pm UTC

Drug drivers released due to unavailable doctors - report

Doctors are unavailable to carry out blood tests on suspected drug drivers and staff retention are among the issues facing An Garda Síochána, according to the Policing Authority.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Apr 2024 | 2:36 pm UTC

UN rights chief ‘horrified’ by reports of mass graves at two Gaza hospitals

Spokesperson says some bodies allegedly had their hands tied while others were bound and stripped

The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, has said he was “horrified” by reports of mass graves containing hundreds of bodies at two of Gaza’s largest hospitals.

Palestinian civil defence teams began exhuming bodies from a mass grave outside the Nasser hospital complex in Khan Younis last week after Israeli troops withdrew. A total of 310 bodies have been found in the last week, including 35 in the past day, Palestinian officials have said.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 2:31 pm UTC

Digital Realty wants to turn Irish datacenters into grid-stabilizing power jugglers

Electricity goes both ways as bit barns in Dublin aim to cut emissions and boost the bank

Datacenter biz Digital Realty is to let facilities in Ireland feed energy back to the electricity grid when needed, helping to smooth out variability in supply, cut CO₂ emissions and provide an additional revenue stream.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 2:30 pm UTC

Moldova Is a Cautionary Tale for Ukraine

Moldova is a cautionary tale for Ukraine.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Apr 2024 | 2:29 pm UTC

Parents challenge planning for Dublin homes over concerns about lack of childcare

Friends of the Phoenix Park says it is aware of ‘severe housing crisis’ and not opposed to development

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Apr 2024 | 2:16 pm UTC

Ariane 6 flies OOV-Cube: Internet of (wild) Things

Europe’s newest rocket soon launches, taking with it many space missions each with a unique objective, destination and team at home, cheering them on. Whether launching new satellites to look back and study Earth, peer out to deep space or test important new technologies in orbit, Ariane 6’s first flight will showcase the versatility and flexibility of this impressive, heavy-lift launcher. Read on for all about OOV-Cube, then see who else is flying first.

Source: ESA Top News | 23 Apr 2024 | 2:16 pm UTC

‘We are sorry ... we failed you’: The State apology to the Stardust families and victims in full

Taoiseach Simon Harris issued apology in the Dáil on Tuesday, as those most affected by February 1981 tragedy looked on

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Apr 2024 | 2:12 pm UTC

Man pleads guilty to intimidating Healy-Rae during rally

A protester has pleaded guilty to intimidating Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae by throwing a bottle at and blocking him during an "aggressive" rally outside Government buildings.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Apr 2024 | 2:02 pm UTC

Microsoft really does not want Windows 11 running on ancient PCs

Even tighter requirements, so it's time to put old hardware out to pasture... or find an alternative OS

Microsoft's war on old PCs appears to have intensified as the latest builds of Windows 11 will not boot if your CPU does not support the SSE4.2 instruction set.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 2:00 pm UTC

Hubble celebrates 34th anniversary

In celebration of the 34th anniversary of the launch of the legendary NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on 24 April, astronomers took a snapshot of the Little Dumbbell Nebula (also known as Messier 76, M76, or NGC 650/651) located 3400 light-years away in the northern circumpolar constellation Perseus. The photogenic nebula is a favourite target of amateur astronomers.

Source: ESA Top News | 23 Apr 2024 | 2:00 pm UTC

Middle East crisis: Authorities recover further bodies at Nasser hospital from mass grave, say reports – as it happened

Emergency services say 310 bodies have been found in past week as UN rights chief says he is ‘horrified’ by reports. This live blog is closed

A source close to Hezbollah said an Israeli strike deep into Lebanon killed a fighter of the Iran-backed militant group on Tuesday as he was travelling in a vehicle, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

The strike hit the Abu al-Aswad area near the coastal city of Tyre, about 35 kilometres (22 miles) from the border, an AFP journalist reported.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 1:59 pm UTC

North Korea is evading sanctions by animating Max and Amazon shows

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty)

For almost a decade, Nick Roy has been scanning North Korea’s tiny Internet presence, spotting new websites coming online and providing a glimpse of the Hermit Kingdoms’ digital life. However, at the end of last year, the cybersecurity researcher and DPRK blogger stumbled across something new: signs North Koreans are working on major international TV shows.

In December, Roy discovered a misconfigured cloud server on a North Korean IP address containing thousands of animation files. Included in the cache were animation cells, videos, and notes discussing the work, plus changes that needed to be made to ongoing projects. Some images appeared to be from an Amazon Prime Video superhero show and an upcoming Max (aka HBO Max) children’s anime.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Apr 2024 | 1:42 pm UTC

SAP cloud swells its topline, but profits slide

Cloud migration good for margins, CEO says

SAP booked revenue of €8.04 billion ($8.58 billion) in the first calendar quarter of 2024, up eight percent on the same period of 2023.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 1:34 pm UTC

Tony Felloni, notorious Dublin heroin dealer, dies suddenly aged 81

Dubliner nicknamed ‘King Scum’ after it emerged he used his children for drugs business and got them addicted

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Apr 2024 | 1:11 pm UTC

Mandiant: Orgs are detecting cybercriminals faster than ever

The 'big victory for the good guys' shouldn't be celebrated too much, though

The average time taken by global organizations to detect cyberattacks has dropped to its lowest-ever level of ten days, Mandiant revealed today.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 1:05 pm UTC

The best noise-canceling headphones for 2024

For most wireless headphones, active noise cancellation (ANC) is a primary feature, especially at the mid-range to premium levels. ANC is a popular tool, especially for headphones you’re going to use in a variety of locations and settings. To help you cut through the noise of all the options on the market, we’ve compiled a list of the best noise-canceling headphones you can buy right now. Judged primarily in terms of ANC performance, this guide not only offers suggestions in various scenarios and prices, but also gives you advice on what to look for on a spec sheet while you’re shopping.

How to choose the best noise-canceling headphones for you

Design

When you’re shopping for a pair of wireless headphones, the first thing you’ll need to decide on is wear style. Do you prefer on-ear or over-ear? For the purposes of this guide, I focus on the over-ear style as that’s what most noise-canceling headphones are nowadays. Sure, you can find on-ear models with ANC, but over-ear, noise-canceling headphones are much more effective at blocking sound since your ears are completely covered.

Type of noise cancellation

Next, you’ll want to look at the type of ANC a set of headphones offers. You’ll come across terms like “hybrid active noise cancellation” or “hybrid adaptive active noise cancellation,” and there are key differences between the two. A hybrid ANC setup uses microphones on the inside and on the outside of the device to detect ambient noise and cancel it out. By analyzing input from both mics, a hybrid system can combat more sounds than “regular” ANC, but it does so at a constant level that doesn’t change.

Adaptive ANC takes the hybrid configuration a step further by continuously adjusting the noise cancellation for changes in your environment and any leakage around the padding of the ear cups. Adaptive ANC also does a better job with wind noise, which can really kill your vibe while using headphones outdoors. For the purposes of this best headphones list, I’m only considering products with hybrid ANC or adaptive ANC setups because those are the most effective at blocking noise.

Customization

You’ll also want to check to see if the ANC system on a prospective set of headphones offers adjustable levels of noise cancellation or presets. These can help you dial in the amount of ANC you need for various environments, but it can also help you save battery life. Master & Dynamic, for example, has ANC presets that provide both maximum noise blocking and more efficient cancellation that is more energy efficient. Other companies may include a slider in their companion apps that let you adjust the ANC level to your liking.

How we test noise-canceling headphones

The primary way we test headphones is to wear them as much as possible. I prefer to do this over a one-to-two-week period, but sometimes deadlines don’t allow it. During this time, I listen to a mix of music and podcasts, while also using the headphones to take both voice and video calls.

Since battery life for headphones can be 30 hours or more, I drain the battery with looping music and the volume set at a comfortable level (usually around 75 percent). Due to the longer battery estimates, I’ll typically power the headphones off several times and leave them that way during a review. This simulates real-world use and keeps me from having to constantly monitor the process for over 24 straight hours.

To test ANC performance specifically, I use headphones in a variety of environments, from noisy coffee shops to quiet home offices. When my schedule allows, I use them during air travel since plane noise is a massive distraction to both work and relaxation. Even if I can’t hop on a flight, I’ll simulate a constant roar with white noise machines, bathroom fans, vacuums and more. I also make note of how well each device blocks human voices, which are a key stumbling block for a lot of ANC headphones.

ANC-related features are something else to consider. Here, I do a thorough review of companion apps, testing each feature as I work through the software. Any holdovers from previous models are double checked for improvements or regression. If the headphones I’m testing are an updated version of a previous model, I’ll spend time getting reacquainted with the older set. Ditto for the closest competition for each new set of headphones that I review.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-noise-canceling-headphones-130029881.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 1:00 pm UTC

The rebuilt Sonos app focuses on getting you to your tunes faster

If you use Sonos speakers, chances are you’ve used their app and encountered at least a little frustration at some point. I don’t think it’s a bad app when you consider the many functions it needs to juggle: finding and playing music from dozens of services, managing multiple connected speakers, running people through setup and troubleshooting and so on. But at the very least, it’s fair to suggest that it’s a little long in the tooth. Sonos knows this, too, and is announcing a totally new app for Android and iOS that was written from the ground up. It’ll be available on May 7.

I spoke to Sonos VP of user experience and user research Neil Griffiths about the redesign, and he said that it came as a result of talking to hundreds of customers about their listening habits and the way they want to use the app. From those conversations came two principles the company followed for the new app. One was to make it easier for people to play back whatever audio content they have, whether it’s streaming music, podcasts, radio, audiobooks, devices plugged into Sonos speakers like TVs or turntables and more. The second is making the app into a hub that’s better-suited to getting to exactly what you want to hear.

The end result is a much simpler app — the old one had the usual five tabs along the bottom, three of which could be used to find music. Now, there’s a single, customizable home screen with a persistent search bar and rows of content. By default, you’ll see a “recently played” section at the top that pulls things in from any service you use; below that you’ll see a carousel of the different services you have hooked up to Sonos. There’s also an area that controls different inputs, like line-in to speakers that support it or TVs plugged into soundbars. That way, you can tap those to switch between streaming music and playing back the connected device.

Sonos

There’s still a “now playing” bar at the bottom of the app that you can tap to get the full playback controls and volume adjustments, but if you swipe up from the bottom of the screen you’ll instead get a view of your whole Sonos system. This shows all your speakers and what’s playing where; you can adjust volume for each from here or group speakers together.

Easily the best thing about this new app is the customizable home screen, though. Not only can you change the order of things that appear there, you can also pin content directly from within different apps so you can get to it immediately. For example, Spotify, Apple Music and basically every other music service typically have a “new releases for you” section that shows recent albums based on your listening habits. If you always want to see that, you can pin it straight to your home screen and it’ll dynamically update when Spotify has new picks. And you can re-order these carousels so your most-used one is right at the top of the screen.

The old Sonos home screen had a recently played section at the top and let you pin songs, albums, playlists and stations from across your services, so it had some degree of flexibility. But being able to add full, dynamically updating sections from the apps you use feels like a major step forward. I can easily see pinning a half-dozen lists from different apps to my home screen, which will make the process of starting music from the Sonos app itself a lot more fluid. I still mostly use AirPlay or Spotify Connect to broadcast to my speakers, but I think it’ll be worth setting up my home in this new app and see if I use it more. Pulling together content from the too many streaming apps I use in one place sounds like a nice improvement over jumping in and out of apps depending on what I want to hear.

Sonos also made it easier to jump right into the service of your choice. All of the streaming apps that you’re logged in to will appear in a carousel as well, with your default / favorite option always at the beginning of the list. The same goes for search — when you open the search bar and type something in, you’ll get the results from your favorite service first.

Sonos

The company is also replacing its existing desktop controller app for Mac and Windows with a web app that'll offer the same functionality and design as you get on your phone. That's probably a good call, as the Sonos controller feels pretty out of step with the company's current design and feature set, though I'm sure some will bristle at it being a web app. That should also start rolling out on May 7, and the existing Mac and Windows app will eventually be shut down.

For a lot of people, I wager the Sonos app will still be a “set it and forget it” kind of thing, used to get speakers set up and then tucked away in case something goes wrong. If you only have one or two speakers and do nearly all your listening through Spotify, for example, it’ll probably be preferable to just use the Spotify app itself still. But people who have a more involved speaker setup and use multiple sources for audio should find a lot to like here when the app arrives in a few weeks.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-rebuilt-sonos-app-focuses-on-getting-you-to-your-tunes-faster-130022601.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 1:00 pm UTC

Castlevania fan uncovers new Konami code in 1999 game

Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, the director's cut version of Castlevania for the Nintendo 64, is a classic today despite issues like blurry graphics and wonky gameplay. You'd think a title designed in the last century (well, 1999) would have no new surprises, but there's a twist to the story. A new Konami Code has been found and it's interesting enough that Castlevania fans may want to give it a fresh look.

The trick was first revealed by Moises and LiquidCat on the Castlevania 64 Discord server, as shared by YouTuber JupiterClimb. To unlock it, you just need to double the inputs of the original Konami Code (press ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A, twice), and all the characters from Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness — Cornell, Reinhardt, Carrie and Henry — are instantly unlocked.

It also opens up all their alternate costumes, along with the game's hard mode. Without the code, you have to win the game (twice!!) to unlock all four characters.

Along with the main code, Moises and LiquidCat also dug up codes to fill all inventories, regardless of character being played. The PAL and JPN version also lets players max out their jewels and weapon power.

JupiterClimb speculates that the code was a developer shortcut accidentally left in the game, as has happened before with Konami titles. In any case, it's a fun surprise that breathes some new life into the 25-year-old vampire game.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/castlevania-fan-uncovers-new-konami-code-in-1999-game-124727119.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 12:47 pm UTC

UnitedHealth admits IT security breach could 'cover substantial proportion of people in America'

That said, good ol' American healthcare system so elaborately costly, some are forced to avoid altogether

UnitedHealth Group, the parent of ransomware-struck Change Healthcare, delivered some very unwelcome news for customers today as it continues to recover from the massively expensive side and disruptive digital break-in.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 12:30 pm UTC

Garda lost toe in Dublin riots due to unsuitable boots, conference hears

The steel cap on the standard issue public order boot does not cover the entire foot, gardaí say

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Apr 2024 | 12:19 pm UTC

The best travel gear for graduates

Travel is once again a rite of passage for many new grads, and as a parent, you probably want to ensure your child has a great time exploring the world. Visiting a new place can be a little tricky, but a few gadgets can help make the experience easier and more enjoyable for your new grad. These are some of the best travel accessories that always earn a spot in our bag whenever we head out on a new adventure.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-travel-tech-for-graduates-123028465.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 12:00 pm UTC

The 2024 Porsche Macan EV has character, pace, and the right badge

Enlarge / The third-generation Porsche Macan drops the internal combustion engine—this one is only available as a battery-electric vehicle. (credit: Porsche)

Porsche's Taycan has been a nice electric vehicle for the German brand, and the recently updated model is supposed to offer more of the good stuff and less of the bad. The sedan is on the expensive side, and it doesn't scream "family lugger," which is where the new electric Macan comes in. Porsche's volume-selling entry-level SUV is now electric, and it might be just the car to convince skeptics and non-Porsche people alike that EV is the way to go. Maybe.

At launch, you'll be able to pick up a Macan 4 or Macan Turbo. Peak power sits at 402 hp (300 k) and 630 hp (470 kW) respectively, but that's just when you use the car's overboost. Most of the time, you'll have to make do with an adequate 382 hp (285 kW) and 576 hp (430 kW). Torque for both is a healthy 479 lb-ft (650 Nm) and 833 lb-ft (1,130 Nm). With all that grunt on board, Porsche reckons you'll be able to hit 62 mph from rest in 4.9 and 3.1 seconds, respectively (0–100 km/h takes 5.2 and 3.3 seconds, respectively), as well as topping out at 137 mph (220 km/h) and 162 mph (260 km/h). Not having a gas motor under the hood isn't a penalty when it comes to performance.

The electric Macan sits on the all-new PPE (Premium Platform Electric) architecture. Shared with Audi and its upcoming Q6 e-tron, PPE was built with electricity in mind. Its party piece is a hefty 100 kWh battery (95 kWh usable) that sits under the cabin, giving the Macan 4 381 miles (613 km) of range and the Turbo 367 miles (590 km), although that's according to the less-accurate WLTP testing scheme used in Europe—EPA range estimates will be available closer to the Macan's arrival in the US in the second half of this year.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Apr 2024 | 12:00 pm UTC

Rivian offers (up to) $5,000 discount if you trade in your gas-powered truck

Rivian will give you up to around $5,470 in discount if you trade in an eligible gas-powered truck or SUV when you purchase or lease a qualifying R1 electric vehicle package in the US and Canada. As an "Electric Upgrade Offer" for Earth Day, Rivian said it will accept 2018 or newer Ford F-150, Explorer, Expedition and Bronco (excluding Bronco Sport) vehicles, as well as 2018 or newer Toyota Tacoma, Tundra, Highlander and 4Runner vehicles for trade in. You can also trade in a Jeep Grand Cherokee, Wrangler or Gladiator from the same model years. Rivian will take a 2018 or newer Audi Q5, Q7 and Q8 and a BMW X3, X5 and X7, as well.

As you can see, some of those models are incredibly popular gas vehicles, like the Ford F-150, as the company is likely hoping to appeal to a wide range of people who may be considering switching to electric. Of course, the amount you get will depend on your vehicle and its condition, which means you could get more if you sell it yourself. In addition, the discount will only apply to specific R1T truck and R1S SUV packs at amounts that range from CAD$1,000 ($730) to CAD$7,500 ($5,470). You'll also still have to put in a $1,000 non-refundable deposit to reserve the configuration you choose, and you must be able to accept a delivery between April 22 and June 30.

As TechCrunch notes, Rivian launched the promo at a time when there's lower demand for electric vehicles, especially for more expensive premium models. Other automakers recently introduced discounts of their own — Tesla, for instance, shaved $2,000 off the starting prices of the Model Y, Model X and Model S. It's also ending its referral program on April 30 and is making its Full-Self Driving software $4,000 cheaper. If you do trade in an eligible gas vehicle to buy an R1, you'll also be able to charge your new EV at all Rivian Adventure Network sites for free for one year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/rivian-offers-up-to-5000-discount-if-you-trade-in-your-gas-powered-truck-120007769.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 12:00 pm UTC

Gaza solidarity protests sweep U.S. colleges; SCOTUS tackles Starbucks union case

Tensions are high as campus protests over the war in Gaza stretch across the U.S. The Supreme Court will hear a case about pro-union Starbucks employees.

(Image credit: Alex Kent)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:58 am UTC

Voyager 1 regains sanity after engineers patch around problematic memory

All from billions of miles away

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has begun returning usable engineering data after engineers devised a way to work around a damaged memory chip.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:45 am UTC

Daily Telescope: The ambiguously galactic duo

Enlarge / This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features NGC 3783, a bright barred spiral galaxy about 130 million light-years from Earth. (credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. C. Bentz, D. J. V. Rosario)

Welcome to the Daily Telescope. There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough light, a little too much pseudoscience and not enough science. We'll let other publications offer you a daily horoscope. At Ars Technica, we're going to take a different route, finding inspiration from very real images of a universe that is filled with stars and wonder.

Good morning. It's April 23, and today's photo comes from the Hubble Space Telescope. It features a lovely, barred spiral galaxy and a photobombing star on the right-hand side of the image.

The galaxy is NGC 3783, which can be found 130 million light-years away from Earth. Astronomical distances are all mind-boggling, but to try to put things into perspective, that means this galaxy is about 1,000 times the distance farther from us compared to the diameter of our own Milky Way Galaxy. So it's far, far away.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:30 am UTC

The Morning After: Meta teases a limited-edition Quest headset inspired by Xbox

Meta announced it’s opening up the Quest’s operating system to third-party companies, allowing them to build headsets of their own. The Quest OS is being rebranded to Meta Horizon OS and already has two companies interested.

ASUS’ Republic of Gamers (ROG) brand is working on new “performance gaming” headsets, while Lenovo’s focus is on devices for “productivity, learning and entertainment.” However, most intriguingly, perhaps, Meta says it’s also working on a limited-edition Xbox “inspired” Quest headset. (Microsoft and Meta also worked together recently to bring Xbox cloud gaming to the Quest.) While this could just be a reskinned Quest 3, this collaboration could lead to future headsets made entirely for Microsoft’s consoles. If PlayStation can have VR, then surely Xbox can too.

— Mat Smith

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The EU opens an investigation into TikTok Lite, citing addiction concerns

This follows a more comprehensive probe from February.

The European Union (EU) has opened a second formal investigation into TikTok. The probe involves the addictive nature of TikTok Lite, a smaller version of the app that takes up less memory and was built to perform over slower internet connections. The wrinkle might be a design aspect that allows users to earn points by watching and liking videos. These points can be exchanged for TikTok’s proprietary digital currency and even Amazon vouchers. The EU’s Commission has expressed concern that this type of “task and reward” design language could impact the mental health of young users by “stimulating addictive behavior.”

Continue reading.

Russian court sentences Meta spokesperson in absentia to six years in prison

Andy Stone was convicted after ‘publicly defending terrorism.’

A few months after Russian officials placed Meta spokesperson Andy Stone on a wanted list and started a criminal investigation, a Moscow court has issued an arrest warrant for him on several terrorism-related charges in February. It cited Stone’s alleged “promotion of terrorist activities, public calls for terrorist activities, public justification of terrorism or propaganda of terrorism and public calls for extremist activities.”

Russia’s investigative committee opened a probe into Meta in March 2022. It claimed Stone had incited extremist activity after lifting “a ban on calls for violence against the Russian military on its platforms.” Stone said Meta was “temporarily” allowing some posts to stay on its platforms that would have previously been taken down for inciting violence, but noted the company would still outlaw “credible calls for violence against Russian civilians.”

Continue reading.

Embracer splits up its messy gaming empire into three companies

They’ll specialize in AAA, tabletop and indie titles.

Embracer

The company has announced plans to split into three separate parts. The first is Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends, specializing in AAA games like Tomb Raider and Dead Island – and, of course, anything Lord of the Rings. Asmodee will handle the tabletop gaming segment, which includes Ticket to Ride, 7 Wonders, Azul, CATAN, Dobble and Exploding Kittens. Coffee Stain & Friends will be the company’s indie-centric group, with properties including Deep Rock Galactic and Goat Simulator.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-meta-teases-a-limited-edition-quest-headset-inspired-by-xbox-111520584.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:15 am UTC

Haiti situation 'catastrophic' and growing worse, says UN

As gang violence continues to rage, two-thirds of children are now in need of aid, the UN warns.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:11 am UTC

Leicester streetlights take ransomware attack personally, shine on 24/7

City council says it lost control after shutting down systems

It's become somewhat cliché in cybersecurity reporting to speculate whether an organization will have the resources to "keep the lights on" after an attack. But the opposite turns out to be true with Leicester City Council following its March ransomware incident.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 11:05 am UTC

AfD politician’s aide arrested on suspicion of spying for China

Man worked as assistant to Maximilian Krah, top candidate in European parliament elections, say prosecutors

A close adviser to a leading member of Germany’s far-right populist Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD) has been arrested on suspicion on spying for China in the latest high-profile espionage case to have come to light.

The man, identified by prosecutors as Jian G, was accused of “an especially severe instance” of espionage, prosecutors said, following his arrest in the early hours of Tuesday morning. It comes after the arrests of three German citizens accused of industrial spying for China in return for payment.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 10:37 am UTC

What is your experience of the deposit return scheme?

We want to hear your thoughts on the scheme, whether positive or negative

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Apr 2024 | 10:35 am UTC

Silicon Valley roundabout has drivers in a spin

Accidents at intersection quadruple

The United States are widely free from roundabout tyranny with only one for every 33,330 people. A good thing too because people passing by Hollister, just south of Silicon Valley, can't seem to grok their new one.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 10:15 am UTC

Limerick store that sold €115m Lotto ticket to Dolores McNamara sells €9m winning ticket

Manager of G.O Stores in Garryowen, Co Limerick, says it is the ‘luckiest shop in Ireland’ after weekend sale of latest Lotto-winning ticket

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Apr 2024 | 10:12 am UTC

Metaphor: ReFantazio, a fantasy RPG from the Persona 5 team, comes out in October

Atlus first teased that it was working on a new RPG with a fantasy setting in mid-2023 — it also said way back then that it will be available sometime this year. Now, the developer has revealed that the game, Metaphor: ReFantazio, will come out on October 11 at a special livestream event. Katsura Hashino, the director of the game, as well as of Persona 3, 4 and 5, also introduced a 30-minute hands-on gameplay that gives you quite a lengthy look at its story and combat mechanics. Similar to the Persona games, Metaphor: ReFantazio has a turn-based combat system with what Atlus says is a "blend of real-time action."

Also, like the Persona games, you'll have to manage your time, so that you can build bonds with your allies and increase your "virtues" outside of dungeon-crawling. Metaphor: ReFantazio is set in the fictional United Kingdom of Euchronia, which was plunged into chaos after the assassination of its king. In the middle of the royal tournament for the throne, the protagonist and his partner fairy Galica go on a journey to find the cursed prince that was thought to be dead and team up with new allies along the way.

Physical copies of the game, both standard and limited Collector's editions, are now available for pre-order, but you'll have to wait a bit if you'd rather get the digital version. Upon launch, the game will be available for various consoles, namely the Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, as well as on Windows and Steam on PC.

If the 30-minute gameplay footage is too long for you, here's a new trailer you can watch instead:

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/metaphor-refantazio-a-fantasy-rpg-from-the-persona-5-team-comes-out-in-october-100359581.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 10:03 am UTC

Microsoft's lightweight Phi-3 Mini model can run on smartphones

Microsoft has unveiled its latest light AI model called the Phi-3 Mini designed to run on smartphones and other local devices, it revealed in a new research paper. Trained on 3.8 billion parameters, it's the first of three small Phi-3 language models the company will release in the near future. The aim is to provide a cheaper alternative to cloud-powered LLMs, allowing smaller organizations to adopt AI.

According to Microsoft, the new model handily outperforms its previous Phi-2 small model and is on par with larger models like Llama 2. In fact, the company says Phi-3 Mini provides responses close to the level of a model 10 times its size.

"The innovation lies entirely in our dataset for training," according to the research paper. That dataset is based on the Phi-2 model, but uses "heavily filtered web data and synthetic data," the team states. In fact, a separate LLM was used to do both of those chores, effectively creating new data that allows the smaller language model to be more efficient. The team was supposedly inspired by children's books that use simpler language to get across complex topics, according to The Verge.

Microsoft

While it still can't produce the results of cloud-powered LLMs, Phi-3 Mini can outperform Phi-2 and other small language models (Mistral, Gemma, Llama-3-In) in tasks ranging from math to programming to academic tests. At the same time, it runs on devices as simple as smartphones, with no internet connection required.

Its main limitation is breadth of "factual knowledge" due to the smaller dataset size — hence why it doesn't perform well in the "TriviaQA" test. Still, it should be good for models that only require smallish internal data sets. That could allow companies that can't afford cloud-connected LLMs to jump into AI, Microsoft hopes.

Phi-3 Mini is now available on Azure, Hugging Face and Ollama. Microsoft is next set to release Phi-3 Small and Phi-3 Medium with significantly higher capabilities (7 billion and 14 billion parameters, respectively).

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsofts-lightweight-phi-3-mini-model-can-run-on-smartphones-100223483.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 10:02 am UTC

Space Team Europe for Ariane 6: Julien Guiridlian

Video: 00:02:19

They say it takes a village to raise a child. To launch a rocket, we have the combined expertise and passion of Space Team Europe. Julien Guiridlian is one of many making the first Ariane 6 launch possible and has been interviewed as part of a series highlighting some of the people that make up this dream team.

Working for France’s space agency CNES, Julien is Ariane launch complex assistant, which means he takes care of the ground segment for the combined tests on Europe’s new rocket. Julien takes care of coordinating everything from the fuel for the launcher, to ensuring there is electricity and the mechanical connections between the rocket and the launch pad. Ariane 6 is all about teamwork, and the team is ready for the match.

Stay tuned for more from #SpaceTeamEurope: an ESA space community engagement initiative to gather European space actors under the same umbrella sharing values of leadership, autonomy, and responsibility.

Find more videos from Space Team Europe.

Source: ESA Top News | 23 Apr 2024 | 10:00 am UTC

What is the UK's plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda?

The UK government has passed new legislation to let it send some asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:59 am UTC

As it happened: State apology for Stardust families

Taoiseach Simon Harris has apologised on behalf of the State to the families of the victims who died in the Stardust tragedy.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:47 am UTC

Don't rent out that container ship yet: CIOs and biz buyers view AI PCs with some caution

Risky bet? Premium price with 'no demonstrable benefits'? It doesn't sound like an order avalanche

While vast swathes of the computer industry remain hellbent on inflating the AI PC hype bubble, the response from some analysts and biz consumers is milder as they sit on the side to see how the first generation tech shapes up.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:30 am UTC

Costuming a Small Army of Virgins for the Met Opera’s ‘El Niño’

The challenge for Montana Levi Blanco, the Tony-winning costume designer for John Adams’s oratorio, was how to keep straight so many Marys.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:02 am UTC

Adobe Photoshop's latest beta makes AI-generated images from simple text prompts

Nearly a year after adding generative AI-powered editing capabilities to Photoshop, Adobe is souping up its flagship product with even more AI. On Tuesday, the company announced that Photoshop is getting the ability to generate images with simple text prompts directly within the app. There are also new features to let the AI draw inspiration from reference images to create new ones and generate backgrounds more easily. The tools will make using Photoshop easier for both professionals as well as casual enthusiasts who may have found the app’s learning curve to be steep, Adobe thinks.

“A big, blank canvas can sometimes be the biggest barrier,” Erin Boyce, Photoshop’s senior marketing director, told Engadget in an interview. “This really speeds up time to creation. The idea of getting something from your mind to the canvas has never been easier.” The new feature is simply called “Generate Image” and will be available as an option in Photoshop right alongside the traditional option that lets you import images into the app.

An existing AI-powered feature called Generative Fill that previously let you add, extend or remove specific parts of an image has been upgraded too. It now allows users to add AI-generated images to an existing image that blend in seamlessly with the original. In a demo shown to Engadget, an Adobe executive was able to circle a picture of an empty salad dish, for instance, and ask Photoshop to fill it with a picture of AI-generated tomatoes. She was also able to generate variations of the tomatoes and choose one of them to be part of the final image. In another example, the executive replaced an acoustic guitar held by an AI-generated bear with multiple versions of electric guitars just by using text prompts, and without resorting to Photoshop’s complex tools or brushes.

Adobe

These updates are powered by Firefly Image 3, the latest version of Adobe’s family of generative AI models that the company also unveiled today. Adobe said Firefly 3 produces images of a higher quality than previous models, provides more variations, and understands your prompts better. The company claims that more than 7 billion images have been generated so far using Firefly.

Adobe is far from the only company stuffing generative AI features into its products. Over the last year, companies, big and small, have revamped up their products and services with AI. Both Google and Microsoft, for instance, have upgraded their cash cows, Search and Office respectively, with AI features. More recently, Meta has started putting its own AI chatbot into Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. But while it’s still unclear how these bets will pan out, Adobe’s updates to Photoshop seem more materially useful for creators. The company said Photoshop’s new AI features had driven a 30 percent increase in Photoshop subscriptions.

Meanwhile, generative AI has been in the crosshairs of artists, authors, and other creative professionals, who say that the foundational models that power the tech were trained on copyrighted media without consent or compensation. Generative AI companies are currently battling lawsuits from dozens of artists and authors. Adobe says that Firefly was trained on licensed media from Adobe Stock, since it was designed to create content for commercial use, unlike competitors like Midjourney whose models are trained in part by illegally scraping images off the internet. But a recent report from Bloomberg showed that Firefly, too, was trained, in part, on AI-generated images from the same rivals including Midjourney (an Adobe spokesperson told Bloomberg that less than 5 percent of images in its training data came from other AI rivals).

To address concerns about the use of generative AI to create disinformation, Adobe said that all images created in Photoshop using generative AI tools will automatically include tamper-proof “Content Credentials”, which act like digital “nutrition labels” indicating that an image was generated with AI, in the file’s metadata. However, it's still not a perfect defense against image misuse, with several ways to sidestep metadata and watermarks.

The new features will be available in beta in Photoshop starting today and will roll out to everyone later this year. Meanwhile, you can play with Firefly 3 on Adobe’s website for free.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/adobe-photoshops-latest-beta-makes-ai-generated-images-from-simple-text-prompts-090056096.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:00 am UTC

The best VPN service for 2024

Securing your online footprint can seem like a daunting task. We’ve become accustomed to giving up bits of data for convenience, and have been forced into trusting our internet service providers because access has become so vital to everyday life. You don’t have to blindly accept this, though: using a virtual private network (VPN) can be an easy way to gain back some of your anonymity and security while browsing online. Still, it can be challenging to differentiate which service makes most sense for your online needs. We tested nine popular VPNs to narrow down our top picks and provide advice on choosing the best VPN service for you.

What is a VPN?

VPNs, or virtual private networks, mask your IP address and the identity of your computer or mobile device on the network and creating an encrypted "tunnel" that prevents your internet service provider (ISP) from accessing data about your browsing history. VPNs are not a one-size-fits-all security solution, though.

Instead, they’re just one part of keeping your data private and secure. Roya Ensafi, assistant professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Michigan, told Engadget that VPNs don’t protect against common threats like phishing attacks, nor do they protect your data from being stolen. Much of the data or information is stored with the VPN provider instead of your ISP, which means that using a poorly designed or unprotected network can still undermine your security. But they do come in handy for online privacy when you’re connecting to an untrusted network somewhere public because they tunnel and encrypt your traffic to the next hop.

That means sweeping claims that seem promising, like military-grade encryption or total digital invisibility, may not be totally accurate. Instead, Yael Grauer, program manager of Consumer Reports’ online security guide, recommends looking for security features like open-source software with reproducible builds, up-to-date support for industry-standard protocols like WireGuard (CR's preferred protocol) or IPsec, and the ability to defend against attack vectors like brute force.

Understanding VPNs and your needs

Before considering a VPN, make sure your online security is up to date in other ways. That means complex passwords, multi-factor authentication methods and locking down your data sharing preferences. Even then, you probably don’t need to be using a VPN all the time.

“If you're just worried about somebody sitting there passively and looking at your data then a VPN is great,” Jed Crandall, an associate professor at Arizona State University, told Engadget.

That brings us to some of the most common uses cases for VPNs. If you use public WiFi networks a lot, like while working at a coffee shop, then VPN usage can help give you private internet access. They’re also helpful for hiding information from other people on your ISP if you don’t want members of your household to know what you’re up to online.

Geoblocking has also become a popular use case as it helps you reach services in other parts of the world. For example, you can access shows that are only available on streaming services, like Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime, in other countries, or play online games with people located all over the globe.

There are also a few common VPN features that you should consider before deciding if you want to use one, and which is best for you:

What is split tunneling?

Split tunneling allows you to route some traffic through your VPN, while other traffic has direct access to the internet. This can come in handy when you want to protect certain activity online without losing access to local network devices, or services that work best with location sharing enabled.

What is a double VPN?

A double VPN, otherwise known as multi-hop VPN or a VPN chain, passes your online activity through two different VPN servers one right after the other. For VPN services that support this, users are typically able to choose which two servers they want their traffic to pass through. As you might expect, this provides an extra layer of security.

Are VPNs worth it?

Whether or not VPNs are worth it depends how often you could use it for the above use cases. If you travel a lot and rely on public WiFi or hotspots, are looking to browse outside of your home country or want to keep your traffic hidden from your ISP, then investing in a VPN will be useful. But, keep in mind that even the best VPN services often slow down your internet connection speed, so they may not be ideal all the time.

In today's world, we recommend not relying on a VPN connection as your main cybersecurity tool. VPN use can provide a false sense of security, leaving you vulnerable to attack. Plus, if you choose just any VPN, it may not be as secure as just relying on your ISP. That’s because the VPN could be based in a country with weaker data privacy regulation, obligated to hand information over to law enforcement or linked to weak user data protection policies.

For VPN users working in professions like activism or journalism that want to really strengthen their internet security, options like the Tor browser may be a worthwhile alternative, according to Crandall. Tor is free, and while it's less user-friendly, it’s built for anonymity and privacy.

How we tested

To test the security specs of different VPNs and name our top picks, we relied on pre-existing academic work through Consumer Reports, VPNalyzer and other sources. We referenced privacy policies, transparency reports and security audits made available to the public. We also considered past security incidents like data breaches.

We looked at price, usage limits, effects on internet speed, possible use cases, ease of use, general functionality and additional “extra” VPN features like multihop. The VPNs were tested across iOS, Android and Mac devices so we could see the state of the mobile apps across various platforms (Windows devices are also supported in most cases). We used the “quick connect” feature on the VPN apps to connect to the “fastest” provider available when testing internet speed, access to IP address data and DNS and WebRTC leaks or when a fault in the encrypted tunnel reveals requests to an ISP.

Otherwise, we conducted a test of geoblocking content by accessing Canada-exclusive Netflix releases, a streaming test by watching a news livestream on YouTube via a Hong Kong-based VPN and a gaming test by playing on servers in the United Kingdom. By performing these tests at the same time, it also allowed us to test claims about simultaneous device use. Here are the VPN services we tested:

Best VPNs of 2024

Other VPN services our experts tested

NordVPN

NordVPN didn’t quite make the cut because it’s overhyped, and underwhelming. As I've written in our full review of NordVPN, the pricing, up to $14.49 for a “complete” subscription, seemed high compared to other services, and its free or lower cost plans just didn’t have the same wide variety of features as its competitors.

TunnelBear

Despite the cute graphics and user friendliness, TunnelBear wasn’t a top choice. It failed numerous basic security tests from Consumer Reports, and had limited availability across platforms like Linux. It did, however, get a major security boost in July when it updated to support WireGuard protocol across more of its platforms.

Bitdefender VPN

Bitdefender doesn’t offer support for devices like routers, which limits its cross-platform accessibility. It also lacked a transparency report or third-party audit to confirm security specs.

Atlas VPN

Atlas ranked lower on our speed tests compared to the other VPNs tested, with a notably slower difference on web browsing and streaming tests. It was a good option otherwise, but could easily cause headaches for those chasing high speed connections. Security-wise, an Atlas VPN vulnerability leaked Linux users’ real IP addresses.

FAQs

What are some things VPNs are used for?

VPNs are traditionally used to protect your internet traffic. If you’re connected to an untrusted network like public WiFi in a cafe, using a VPN hides what you do from the internet service provider. Then, the owner of the WiFi or hackers trying to get into the system can’t see the identity of your computer or your browsing history.

A common non-textbook use case for VPNs has been accessing geographically restricted content. VPNs can mask your location, so even if you’re based in the United States, they can make it appear as if you’re browsing abroad and unblock access. This is especially useful for streaming content that’s often limited to certain countries, like if you want to watch Canadian Netflix from the US.

What information does a VPN hide?

A VPN doesn’t hide all of your data. It only hides information like your IP address, location and browser history. A common misconception is that VPNs can make you totally invisible online. But keep in mind that the VPN provider often still has access to all of this information, so it doesn’t grant you total anonymity. You’re also still vulnerable to phishing attacks, hacking and other cyberthreats that you should be mindful of by implementing strong passwords and multi-factor authentication.

Are VPNs safe?

Generally, yes. VPNs are a safe and reliable way to encrypt and protect your internet data. But like most online services, the safety specifics vary from provider to provider. You can use resources like third-party audits, Consumer Reports reviews, transparency reports and privacy policies to understand the specifics of your chosen provider.

What about Google’s One VPN?

Google One subscriptions include access to the company’s VPN, which works similarly to other VPNs on our list, hiding your online activity from network operators. However, Google announced recently that it plans to shut down the One VPN because "people simply weren’t using it." There's no specific date for the shutdown, with Google simply saying it will discontinue the service sometime later in 2024. Pixel phone owners, however, will continue to have access to the free VPN available on their devices.

Update November 10, 2023: This story was updated after publishing to remove mention of PPTP, a protocol that Consumer Reports' Yael Grauer notes "has serious security flaws."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-vpn-130004396.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 9:00 am UTC

The Implications of Irish Unity for the Alliance Party…

Ben Collins is the author of Irish Unity: Time to Prepare

In recent times we have seen significant coverage devoted to whether Alliance voters would vote for or against Irish unity in a border poll. Jon Tonge who is publishing a book on Alliance this summer recently published on 3 March research in the Belfast Telegraph which shows that Alliance party members are increasingly in favour of Irish unity.

The weather may be rubbish but it’s never too early to be thinking about your summer holiday reading… pic.twitter.com/IrurphKEr4

— Jon Tonge (@JonTonge) April 9, 2024

This is a trend which has been accelerated by Brexit, as was acknowledged by Alliance leader Naomi Long when speaking on the BBC Sunday Politics Show, after the survey results were published.

The LucidTalk NI ‘Tracker’: Winter 2024 published on 4 March 2024 showed that more Alliance/Green/Others voters want to see a United Ireland at some point in the future than want Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK. Given the delicate balance in voting blocs where at the last Northern Ireland Assembly elections roughly 40% voted Unionist, 40% Nationalist and 20% other/non-aligned, it is not surprising that there is an increasing focus on how Alliance voters would cast their ballots in a unity referendum.

From the @BelTel ✅ Winter24 LT NI 'Tracker' poll (Poll: 9th-12th Feb, 3,207 NI representative sample) ✅ – Do you have an aspiration towards a united Ireland, either now, or in the near future? By (a) NI results, (b) Alliance/Green/Others, (c) SDLP voters, (d) Non-Voters. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/lbapNF5fey

— LucidTalk (@LucidTalk) March 4, 2024

David McCann Deputy Editor of Slugger recently published an article on 27 March about the potential for a future realignment of the left across Ireland, he suggested that the Social Democrats, Labour and the SDLP should join forces.

For me an equally interesting question is what happens to the Alliance party after a vote for reunification? I am a former member of Alliance and was briefly on their party Executive but I can claim no particular insight into the party’s thinking. We know that Alliance consciously does not take a position on the constitutional issue at the present time. Depending on your point of view you may consider that this makes them ‘soft unionists’ or ‘cryptonationalists’.

This neutrality on constitutional issues is unlikely to change before a border poll is called. I would be surprised if they were to take a collective decision in favour or against Irish unity when a referendum is called. They are more likely to allow their party members and elected representatives to campaign and vote according to their personal preferences.

Once the referendum has taken place and in the event that it results in votes for reunification both North and South, the fascinating decision for Alliance will be to decide how to proceed from then on. There is a strong liberal ethos within the party and although they have positioned themselves within the context of the Northern Ireland peace process, I think that they have the potential to further thrive in a reunified Ireland. There will be a number of options open to them. They can continue as a liberal regional party, as currently. In many ways they would be best positioned to be a northern part of a new all-Ireland government. They have proven that they can work with Sinn Féin in places like Belfast City Council and in the Northern Ireland Executive. For many years Alliance has maintained friendly relations with Fine Gael, over a shared focus on Law and Order, pro-European outlook, desire to grow the economy and as former Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald onwards has shown, a liberalising approach to social issues. Alliance is part of the same European Liberal group, Renew Europe, as Fianna Fáil. I’m sure they would also be able to find accommodation to work with the Greens given their shared focus on climate action and the parties of the left, including the Social Democrats and Labour. On the basis of current polling neither People Before Profit or Aontú are likely to play a part in government in the immediate future.

In Germany there is the CDU/CSU arrangement where one party (CSU) contests elections in Bavaria and the other party (CDU) stands for election in the rest of Germany but they work together at a federal level. In those circumstances Alliance could position itself as an attractive northern partner for a coalition government, for each of the main parties in the South. I also think that Alliance would be well-positioned to ensure that there is equal treatment for everyone from Northern Ireland in a new reunified state and to call out any discrimination. Unionists may realise after reunification, that Alliance are not the enemy of Unionism that they are sometimes portrayed to be. But if we do see further political realignment across the island, could this result in Alliance standing candidates in what is now the Irish Republic? My sense is that if this were to happen, it would be from a grassroots initiative.

Perhaps if we see further coalescing between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, there would be sufficient space for a centrist party such as Alliance to attract votes in the South. Arguably one can say that now Alliance is the partner of choice in Northern Ireland for the parties which make up the coalition for the current Irish Government, in the same way as successive Irish Governments used to view the SDLP, prior to them being overtaken by Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland. However if Alliance start to directly compete with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael for votes and seats, that sense of partnership may quickly dissipate. I’m sure that the Alliance leadership will consider these factors at the time and decide what the benefits of remaining a regional party vis a vis standing across all of Ireland will be. What happens to Unionist parties after reunification and whether Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil or some new political vehicle which incorporates them, start to contest elections in Northern Ireland, will be a factor in Alliance’s calculations. But that is a subject for a different blog post.

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 23 Apr 2024 | 8:54 am UTC

Murray buzzer-beater helps Nuggets beat Lakers

Jamal Murray scores at the buzzer as defending champions Denver Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Lakers 101-99 to take a 2-0 lead in their NBA play-offs first-round series.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 8:30 am UTC

Over a million Neighbourhood Watch members exposed through web app bug

Unverified users could scoop up data on high-value individuals without any form of verification process

Neighbourhood Watch (NW) groups across the UK can now rest easy knowing the developers behind a communications platform fixed a web app bug that leaked their data en masse.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 8:30 am UTC

Council of Europe human rights watchdog condemns UK’s Rwanda bill

Commissioner expresses grave concern after Rishi Sunak’s asylum policy passes parliamentary stages

The Council of Europe’s human rights watchdog has condemned Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda scheme, saying it raises “major issues about the human rights of asylum seekers and the rule of law”.

The body’s human rights commissioner, Michael O’Flaherty, said the bill, expected to be signed into law on Tuesday after passing its parliamentary stages on Monday night, was a grave concern and should not be used to remove asylum seekers or infringe on judges’ independence.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 7:57 am UTC

Chris Mason: Measure draws election dividing line

Ministers believe the novel deportation scheme is worth a try, but Labour plans to get rid of it.

Source: BBC News | 23 Apr 2024 | 7:52 am UTC

Amazon halts drone deliveries in California, but kicks off operations in Phoenix

Amazon customers in California won't be able to get drone deliveries anymore. The e-commerce company has closed its delivery site in Lockeford, which has been operational since 2022, and will now offer its personnel in the area opportunities at other sites. Amazon made the revelation almost as an aside in an announcement that it's launching drone deliveries in the West Valley Phoenix Metro area later this year. Its drones will be deployed from facilities near its Tolleson fulfillment center. Amazon says it's the first time drone deliveries will be fully integrated into its network, and it will allow the company to fulfill and deliver purchases more quickly.

The company doesn't have an exact launch date for its drone deliveries in Phoenix, because it's still working with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and local officials to get the permits it needs. It does have the support of Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, though, who called drone deliveries "the future" and said it would help her city "reduce local pollution" and further cement it "as a hotbed for the innovative technology of tomorrow."

While Amazon's drone delivery operations are shutting down in California, it'll continue its activities in College Station, Texas. Shortly after it started using drones as couriers in those two areas, The Information reported that the company has made just a handful of deliveries via the method, mostly due to FAA limitations that prohibit the machines from flying over roads or people unless Amazon gets permission for every case. It eventually reached 100 drone deliveries by the middle of 2023, though that was likely far from what the company had hoped to get by then, since it aimed to reach 10,000 deliveries by the end of the year.

Those setbacks, however, don't seem to have deterred Amazon. It's currently testing its next-gen MK30 drones that can fly twice as far as its current drones, and it also said that it's deploying drone deliveries in more locations in the US next year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-halts-drone-deliveries-in-california-but-kicks-off-tests-in-phoenix-074053856.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 23 Apr 2024 | 7:40 am UTC

Meta comms chief handed six-year Russian prison sentence for 'justifying terrorism'

Memo to Andy Stone: Don't go to Moscow for your holidays

Meta’s communications director Andy Stone has been sentenced in absentia to six years imprisonment in Russia for "justifying terrorism."…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 7:33 am UTC

Yellowstone’s Wolves: A Debate Over Their Role in the Park’s Ecosystem

New research questions the long-held theory that reintroduction of such a predator caused a trophic cascade, spawning renewal of vegetation and spurring biodiversity.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Apr 2024 | 7:00 am UTC

Reporting in India ‘too difficult’ under Modi, says departing Australian journalist

Despite eventual visa backflip by authorities, ABC’s south-Asia correspondent Avani Dias left after being made to ‘feel so uncomfortable’

The south-Asia correspondent for Australia’s national broadcaster, Avani Dias, has been forced out of India after her reporting fell foul of the Indian government, in a sign of the increasing pressure on journalists in the country under Narendra Modi.

Dias, who has been based in Delhi for the ABC since January 2022, said she felt the government had made it “too difficult” for her to continue to do her job, claiming it blocked her from accessing events, issued takedown notices to YouTube for her news stories, and then refused her a standard visa renewal.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 6:33 am UTC

European Commission to suspend TikTok's new rewards program, open second probe

For some reason the world's most notorious app decided not to tick all boxes under the world’s toughest digital law

TikTok has earned itself a second investigation under the European Union's Digital Services Act – and suspension of its rewards program – after failing to comply with the law in two important regards.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 6:28 am UTC

Tánaiste accuses Israel of vindictive punishment of Gaza

Tánaiste Micheál Martin has accused Israel of the vindictive and collective punishment of the population of Gaza following a meeting with UN officials at the Rafah Crossing.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Apr 2024 | 6:00 am UTC

Malaysia navy helicopters collide in mid-air, killing all 10 onboard

Videos on social media show helicopters flying in formation when one clipped another and both crashed

Two Malaysian navy helicopters have collided in mid-air during a rehearsal for a parade, killing all 10 crew members on board, the navy has said.

The incident occurred at the Lumut naval base in the western state of Perak at 9.32am on Tuesday (0132 GMT), the navy said in a statement.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 5:56 am UTC

Tuesday briefing: Rishi Sunak finally passes his Rwanda bill – now to find out if it works

In today’s newsletter: After months of wrangling, Parliament passed the government’s controversial plan to tackle small boats

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 5:53 am UTC

Taiwan pledges to remove 760 statues of Chinese dictator Chiang Kai-shek

In move seen by the opposition as an attempt to de-sinocise Taiwan, the ruling party is pushing ahead with plans to rid the island of monuments to the dictator

Taiwan’s government has pledged to remove almost 800 statues of Chiang Kai-shek, the Chinese military dictator who ruled the island for decades under martial law, but whose legacy remains a point of contentious debate.

In 2018 the government established a transitional justice committee to investigate the rule of the former generalissimo, who was president of the Republic of China (ROC) – in China and then in Taiwan – until his death in 1975. Among its recommendations was to remove the thousands of statues from public spaces.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 5:53 am UTC

Misconfigured cloud server leaked clues of North Korean animation scam

Outsourcers outsourced work for the BBC, Amazon, and HBO Max to the hermit kingdom

A misconfigured cloud server that used a North Korean IP address has led to the discovery that film production studios including the BBC, Amazon, and HBO Max could be inadvertently using workers from the hermit kingdom for animation projects.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 5:26 am UTC

ED staff were in 'an impossible situation', inquest told

A doctor who was working in the emergency department at University Hospital Limerick on the evening Aoife Johnston presented has said staff were in "an impossible situation" as a result of chronic overcrowding at the facility.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Apr 2024 | 5:01 am UTC

Australia secures takedown order for terror videos, which Elon Musk wants to fight

Yet X remains a supporter of The Christchurch Call, an international agreement to stop video nasties

+Comment Australia's government has secured a court order requiring Elon Musk's social network, X, to remove all videos depicting a terrorist attack.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 4:15 am UTC

World Bank suspends Tanzania tourism funding after claims of killings and evictions

Plan to expand Ruaha national park has been beset by allegations of abuse, leading bank to withhold final $50m of $150m budget

The World Bank has suspended financing intended to develop tourism in southern Tanzania after allegations of killings, rape and forced evictions.

The bank began investigating last year after being accused of enabling abuses around Ruaha national park, which was due to double in size as part of a World Bank-supported programme.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 4:00 am UTC

Joy in Taiwan – and praise from the president – as Nymphia Wind wins RuPaul’s Drag Race

Drag star celebrated with massive support at home after taking top prize in the long-running US reality show

A drag queen has sparked national celebration as the “pride of Taiwan” and won praise and congratulations from the island’s president after winning RuPaul’s Drag Race at the weekend.

On Saturday, the long-running, Emmy award-winning US reality show, in which drag queens compete in challenges including lip-sync performances, revealed the winner of its 16th season as Nymphia Wind, the drag personality creation of Leo Tsao, a 28-year-old Taiwanese designer.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 2:56 am UTC

Sudan’s forgotten war - podcast

While conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine have captured global attention, the civil war in Sudan has been largely ignored. That can’t be allowed to continue, says the Guardian’s Nesrine Malik

With so much of the world’s attention on the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, one of the worst humanitarian crises of recent times is playing out almost unnoticed. Sudan’s civil war erupted in April 2023 and has led to tens of thousands of civilian deaths and a mass displacement of up to half of the country’s population.

As Nesrine Malik tells Helen Pidd, the battle between the Sudanese Army and rebel militia the Rapid Support Forces is finely balanced, with the effect that neither side has enough strength to win the conflict decisively and so no end is in sight.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Apr 2024 | 2:00 am UTC

Japan to draw up routes for roads dedicated to robot trucks

Digital reform conference sees PM repeat calls to get online government services right at last

Usually when a government announces it's drawing up a digitalization roadmap, it's being metaphorical. In Japan's case, it's quite literal: roadways dedicated to autonomous vehicles handling logistics-related traffic will be mapped out.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 1:58 am UTC

Old Windows print spooler bug is latest target of Russia's Fancy Bear gang

Putin's pals use 'GooseEgg' malware to launch attacks you can defeat with patches or deletion

Russian spies are exploiting a years-old Windows print spooler vulnerability and using a custom tool called GooseEgg to elevate privileges and steal credentials across compromised networks, according to Microsoft Threat Intelligence.…

Source: The Register | 23 Apr 2024 | 1:15 am UTC

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