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Submission + - trump proposes nasa budget be slashed by 23% (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Mr. Dollar Ton
Mr. Dollar Ton writes: right in the wake of the lunar mission achieving a major milestone and on top of its 1.5 trillion military budget proposal, the trump administration want to save money by slashing nasa budget significantly.

tired of winning yet?

Submission + - Scientists Engineered a Plant to Produce 5 Different Psychedelics at Once (sciencealert.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: What do plants, toads, and mushrooms have in common? They can all produce psychedelic substances â" and now their powers have been combined in one plant, like a trippier Captain Planet.

In a wild first, scientists have taken the genes these organisms use to make five natural psychedelics and introduced them into a tobacco plant (Nicotiana benthamiana), which then produced all five compounds simultaneously.

Submission + - Brazil Builds Free Payment System; US Wonders If That's Allowed (yahoo.com) 1

Submitted by Suripat
Suripat writes: Brazil’s instant payment system, Pix, has quickly changed how people handle money, making transfers free and nearly immediate. It’s become so widely used that cash and even card payments are losing ground. That success is now getting attention abroad, especially in the United States, where officials are looking into whether a government-backed system like Pix gives it an unfair edge over private payment companies. Supporters see it as efficient and accessible, while critics raise questions about competition. As Pix keeps growing, it’s starting to look less like a local innovation and more like something that could challenge established payment systems worldwide.

Submission + - Washington Post Announces Transition to 'Modern' All-GenAI Content Format 1

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Inspired in part by Amazon's success in using LLMs to eliminate the cost of Java programmers, Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos on Wednesday announced that the Post is pivoting to a 'modern' all-GenAI content format. "Our HR AI agents are notifying our remaining journalists that their services are no longer needed and thanking them for creating past content that powers the AI models that are replacing them," added Matt Murray, the Post’s executive editor.

It's the latest cost-cutting move at WaPo, which laid off more than 300 journalists in February as it closed its sports and books sections and fired all staff photographers, blaming the layoffs in part on "the rise of generative A.I." The move, Bezos explained, will also enable the Post to use GenAI-produced images to accompany its GenAI-produced news stories, eliminating the need to pay freelance photographers.

At the end of 2024, Mr. Bezos described the Post's struggles to cut costs and boost readership in an interview at a conference hosted by The New York Times: “We saved The Washington Post once, and we’re going to save it a second time,” he said at the time. "And now, thanks to the magic of Amazon Bedrock," Bezos said Wednesday in a zoom call from his $500 million yacht Koru (his home away from homes), "we're going to save it again."

Submission + - AMD says it will buy Intel (techspot.com)

Submitted by ZipNada
ZipNada writes: In a move that feels less like a corporate transaction and more like the final punchline to a 40-year industry rivalry, AMD announced Wednesday that it has agreed to acquire Intel, the company it has spent decades chasing, imitating, undercutting, suing, licensing from, and lately outperforming.

The all-stock transaction, which AMD described as a "once-in-a-generation opportunity to unify x86 innovation," would combine the two companies under a single umbrella just a few years after such an outcome would have sounded ridiculous.

For most of modern computing history, Intel was the empire and AMD the scrappy survivor, the perpetual second source that somehow kept finding ways to stay alive. Now, after a bruising run of manufacturing delays, product stumbles, strategic resets, and a historic reversal in investor confidence, Intel is poised to be absorbed by the smaller company it long treated as a footnote.

Submission + - Non-US made WiFi Routers Banned by FCC (pcmag.com)

Submitted by phatrabt
phatrabt writes: The FCC has now banned any WiFi routers not made in the US from being sold unless granted a waiver from the Pentagon or Homeland Security. PC Mag says:

"Late on Monday afternoon, the FCC announced the order, based on a White House determination that foreign-made routers introduce “supply chain vulnerabilities” that hackers and cyberspies can exploit. Specifically, the commission updated its “covered list,” which acts as a blacklist of telecom equipment deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to US national security. It now includes “all consumer-grade routers produced in foreign countries.”

However, the FCC stresses, “This action does not affect any previously purchased consumer-grade routers. Consumers can continue to use any router they have already lawfully purchased or acquired.”

“Nor does it prevent retailers from continuing to sell, import, or market router models approved previously through the FCC’s equipment authorization process,” the commission adds.

Submission + - In hilarious move, FCC bans all new routers (fcc.gov)

Submitted by TheNameOfNick
TheNameOfNick writes: The FCC has just banned new router models, expect for models entirely made in the US from parts made in the US and running software made in the US. Models which fit the exemption do not exist. The press release states: "New devices on the Covered List, such as foreign-made consumer-grade routers, are prohibited from receiving FCC authorization and are therefore prohibited from being imported for use or sale in the U.S."

Submission + - Peter Thiel just bet $2 billion on a collar that wraps around a cow's neck (x.com) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The company is called Halter and it has a proprietary algorithm that runs the entire operation.

They actually trademarked the name for it and called it the Cowgorithm and here's how it works.

A farmer opens an app, taps a button, and 600,000 cows across three countries start walking toward the milking station on their own.

No farm dogs, fences or physical labor, it's just a solar-powered GPS collar sending sound and vibration cues to each animal.

The collar does more than move cows around.

It monitors digestion, fertility cycles, and health patterns in real time, 24 hours a day, using machine learning trained on the behavior of hundreds of thousands of animals.

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