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Submission + - Bitcoin drops below $67,000 as sell-off intensifies (cnbc.com)

fjo3 writes: Bitcoin sank below $67,000 on Thursday as investor confidence continued to falter in the asset once hailed as “digital gold” and a unique store of value.

Digital assets, including bitcoin, have fallen deeper into the red as investors re-assess the practical utility of a token that has been championed not only as a hedge against inflation and macroeconomic uncertainties but also as an alternative to fiat currencies and traditional safe-havens such as gold.

Submission + - AI Assisted Olympic Training Sparks Digital Steroids Concerns (nerds.xyz)

BrianFagioli writes: Google Cloud is using AI powered motion analysis to help U.S. Olympic skiers and snowboarders refine their tricks using nothing more than standard smartphone video. The system can break down takeoff angles, body position, and landings in near real time, giving athletes and coaches fast, data driven feedback on the mountain rather than hours later in a lab. Google says the goal is to expose tiny biomechanical details that are difficult to spot at full speed, especially in harsh outdoor conditions.

The approach raises an uncomfortable question about fairness in elite sports. While AI does not alter an athleteâ(TM)s physical capabilities the way steroids do, it does inject advanced intelligence into preparation, potentially widening the gap between well funded teams and everyone else. As AI driven training tools become more common, sports governing bodies may need to decide whether this is simply the next evolution of coaching or something closer to digital performance enhancement.

Submission + - OpenClaw agents targeted with 341 malicious ClawHub skills (scworld.com) 1

spatwei writes: More than 300 malicious OpenClaw skills hosted on ClawHub spread malware including the Atomic macOS Stealer (AMOS), keyloggers and backdoors, Koi Security reported Sunday.

OpenClaw, formerly known as Moltbot and Clawdbot, is an open-source AI agent that has recently gained significant popularity as a personal and professional assistant.

ClawHub is an open-source marketplace for OpenClaw “skills,” which are tools OpenClaw agents can install to enable new capabilities or integrations.

Koi Security Researcher Oren Yomtov discovered the malicious skills in collaboration with his own OpenClaw assistant named Alex, according to Koi Security’s blog post, which is written from Alex’s perspective.

Yomtov and Alex audited all 2,857 skills available on ClawHub at the time of their investigation, and discovered that 341 were malicious, with 335 seemingly tied to the same campaign.

Submission + - Poop From Young Donors Reverses Age-Related Decline in The Guts of Older Mice (sciencealert.com) 1

alternative_right writes: After receiving a fecal microbiota transplant from younger mice, one aspect of age-related decline in the guts of older mice was reversed, driven by increased intestinal stem cell activity that maintains the intestinal walls.

The findings suggest that such transplants could someday be a treatment pathway for age-related intestinal conditions, such as inflammation and obesity.

Submission + - Researchers completely eliminate pancreatic tumors in mice. (www.cnio.es)

fahrbot-bot writes: Mariano Barbacid, head of the Experimental Oncology Group at the National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), has designed a therapy that successfully eliminates pancreatic tumours in mice completely and durably, with no significant side effects. The study is published in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), with Carmen Guerra as co-lead author and Vasiliki Liaki and Sara Barrambana as first authors.

Current drugs for pancreatic cancer lose effectiveness within months because the tumour becomes resistant. The group from Spain’s National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) has been able to avoid the development of resistance in animal models with a combined triple therapy.

These results “pave the way for the design of combined therapies that may improve survival,” the authors indicate, although this will not happen in the short term. The results are published in PNAS.

Submission + - Walmart Commits to Electric Vehicle Charging

Geoffrey.landis writes: Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is making a big change to some of its parking lots: they plan to add spaces for electric vehicle charging at select locations in 19 states. (non-paywalled site here). The move follows up on a plan announced in 2023 to build a network of charging stations at Walmart and Sam’s Club stores throughout the U.S. While the company has charging stations at some locations already, it recently updated its website to indicate stations are coming soon to dozens of locations. Walmart said "With a store or club located within 10 miles of approximately 90% of Americans, we are uniquely positioned to deliver a convenient charging option that will help make EV ownership possible whether people live in rural, suburban or urban areas," according to Walmart Senior Vice President of Energy Transformation, Vishal Kapadia.
Walmart plans to have the nationwide network operating by 2030. Customers who want to use the charging stations must use the Walmart App to sign in and pay. The full list of Walmart locations that have recently opened or soon to open EV charging stations is here.

Submission + - McDonald's warns that "bigmac" is still one of the internet's worst passwords (nerds.xyz)

BrianFagioli writes: McDonald’s Netherlands is using a surprisingly effective example to highlight just how bad people still are at password hygiene. To mark Change Your Password Day, it pointed to data from the breach tracking site Have I Been Pwned showing that the password “bigmac” has appeared more than 110,000 times in leaked datasets. Other McDonald’s themed passwords like “frenchfries,” “happymeal,” and “mcnuggets” also show up tens of thousands of times, often with predictable number or symbol variations that offer little real protection.

The campaign underscores a problem security experts have warned about for years: attackers no longer guess passwords manually. They use massive automated lists built from past breaches, meaning any reused or common password is already compromised. McDonald’s is using humor and embarrassment rather than fear to get the point across, nudging users toward password managers, unique logins, and two factor authentication as the only realistic way to stay ahead of the endless breach cycle.

Submission + - Ancient Martian beach discovered, providing new clues to planet's habitability (phys.org)

alternative_right writes: New findings from NASA's Perseverance rover have revealed evidence of wave-formed beaches and rocks altered by subsurface water in a Martian crater that once held a vast lake—considerably expanding the timeline for potential habitability at this ancient site. In an international study led by Imperial College London, researchers uncovered that the so-called "Margin unit" in Mars's Jezero crater preserves evidence of extensive underground interactions between rock and water, as well as the first definitive traces of an ancient shoreline.

Comment Re:I have yet to see a use case for small LLMs (Score 2) 49

I have a dream of running my own personal "google home" from my basement - I want it to turn on and off lights, maybe adjust the thermostat using voice commands. I also want it access a few web pages and be able to answer questions (via voice) regarding their contents: local weather, stock prices, maybe Wikipedia. No reporting back to the motheship because I am the mothership. This might be of a size to be able to accomplish this.

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