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Submission + - Monster of 2025: Endless Subscriptions (motherjones.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: The Hatch Restore alarm clock, which retails for $169, can light up your bedroom in every hue, soothe you to sleep with audio meditation sessions, and keep you in a REM cycle with a full catalogue of white noise options. To utilize these features, though, you need to pay an additional $4.99 per month, in perpetuity.

Welcome to the age of subscription captivity, where an increasing share of the things you pay for actually own you.

Submission + - MIT Grieves Shooting Death of Renowned Director of Plasma Science Center (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) community is grieving after the “shocking” shooting death of the director of its plasma science and fusion center, according to officials. Nuno FG Loureiro, 47, had been shot multiple times at his home in the affluent Boston suburb of Brookline on Monday night when police said they received a call to investigate. Emergency responders brought Loureiro to a hospital, and the award-winning scientist was pronounced dead there Tuesday morning, the Norfolk county district attorney’s office said in a statement.

The Boston Globe reported speaking with a neighbor of Loureiro who heard gunshots, found the academic lying on his back in the foyer of their building and then called for help alongside the victim’s wife. The statement from the Norfolk district attorney’s office said an investigation into Loureiro’s slaying remained ongoing later Tuesday. But the agency did not immediately release any details about a possible suspect or motive in the killing, which gained widespread attention across academic circles, the US and in Loureiro’s native Portugal.

Portugal’s minster of foreign affairs announced Loureiro’s death in a public hearing Tuesday, as CNN reported. Separately, MIT president Sally Kornbluth issued a university-wide letter expressing “great sadness” over the death of Loureiro, whose survivors include his wife. “This shocking loss for our community comes in a period of disturbing violence in many other places,” said Kornbluth’s letter, released after a weekend marred by deadly mass shootings at Brown University in Rhode Island – about 50 miles away from MIT – as well as on Australia’s Bondi Beach. The letter concluded by providing a list of mental health resources, saying: “It’s entirely natural to feel the need for comfort and support.”

Submission + - Isaacman confirmed for NASA head (politico.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The Senate on Wednesday approved Jared Isaacman for the top job at NASA — an unprecedented comeback after President Donald Trump yanked his nomination this spring.

Trump renominated Isaacman for NASA administrator in November, after pulling his original nomination in May. He cited Isaacman’s relationship with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, with whom Trump had just had a falling out, as the rationale for his decision.

Isaacman’s surprise rebound followed months of political jockeying and help from high-profile figures in Trump’s orbit.

Submission + - Companies getting a productivity boost from AI aren't turning around and firing (yahoo.com)

Submitted by ZipNada
ZipNada writes: The explosion in AI models, software, and agents has raised questions about the impact of the technology on the broader job market as companies find new efficiencies from this new technology.

But according to EY's latest US AI Pulse Survey, just 17% of 500 business executives at US companies that saw productivity gains via AI turned around and cut jobs.

"There's a narrative that we hear quite frequently about companies looking to take that benefit that they're seeing and put it into the financial statements reducing costs, or cutting heads," EY global consulting AI leader Dan Diasio told Yahoo Finance.

"But the data that we asked those 500 executives does not bear that out. That is happening less than one out of five times, and more often they are reinvesting that," he added.

Submission + - Tech Giant-Supported Study Chastises K-12 Schools for Lack of AI + CS Education

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Coinciding with Computer Science Education Week and its flagship event the Hour of AI, tech-backed nonprofit Code.org this week released the 2025 State of AI & Computer Science Education report, chastising K-12 schools for the lack of access to AI and CS education and thanking its funders Microsoft, Amazon, and Google for supporting the report's creation.

"For the first time ever," Code.org explains, "the State of AI + CS Education features a state-by-state analysis of AI education policies, including whether standards and graduation requirements emphasize AI. The report continues to track the CS access, participation, and fundamental policies that have made it a trusted benchmark for policymakers, educators, and advocates."

The report laments that "0 out of 50 states require AI+CS for graduation," adding that "access to CS has plateaued" at 60% nationwide, with Minnesota and Alaska bringing up the rear with a woeful 34%. However, flaws with the statistic on which the K-12 CS education crisis movement was built — the "Percentage of Public High Schools Offering Foundational Computer Science" — become apparent with just a casual glance at the data underlying Minnesota's failing 34% grade. Because that metric neglects to take into account school sizes — which of course vary widely — the percentage of schools offering access to CS can be vastly different than the percentage of students attending schools offering access to CS. So, when Code.org reports that only 33% of the three Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools offer access to CS, keep in mind that left unreported is that more than 95% of students in the district attend the one Prior Lake-Savage Area School that does offer access to CS, which is a far less alarming metric. Code.org reports that Prior Lake High School (2,854 students, per NCES records) offers access to CS, while Prior Lake-Savage Area ALC (93 students) and Laker Online (45 students) do not. And that, kids, is today's lesson in K-12 CS education access crisis math, where 95% (2,854 students/2,992 students) can equal 33% (1 school/3 schools)!

Submission + - Startup discovers hidden abundant, clean energy and did it in an unusual way (cnn.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: It’s a “classic needle in the haystack problem,” said Joel Edwards, co-founder and CTO of Zanskar. “There’s no one type of data that tells you that a system is below you, even if you’re right on top of it.” Instead, there are multiple indicators which are really hard for humans to put together to figure out if a system exists.

That’s where AI comes in.

The AI models Zanskar uses are fed information on where blind systems already exist. This data is plentiful as, over the last century and more, humans have accidentally stumbled on many around the world while drilling for other resources such as oil and gas.

The models then scour huge amounts of data — everything from rock composition to magnetic fields — to find patterns that point to the existence of geothermal reserves. AI models have “gotten really good over the last 10 years at being able to pull those types of signals out of noise,” Hoiland said.

Once a potential location has been found, the next step for the company is to drill down to confirm the reserve exists and is hot enough to produce utility-scale power.

That’s exactly what they did at Big Blind over the summer, drilling wells to depths of around 2,700 feet where they found porous rock at 250 degrees Fahrenheit. They know the site is at least the minimum size needed to support a power plant, but don’t yet have a sense of how big it could be.

There is also work to be done to navigate permitting processes and grid interconnection, but the company estimates the first electricity could be produced here in three to five years’ time.

Comment Re:Future of Xbox (Score 1) 42

by SuiteSisterMary (#65848561) Attached to: Xbox Is Bleeding Out

It absolutely is.

PlayStation->PlayStation 2-> PlayStation 3-> PlayStation 4->PlayStation 4 Pro -> PlayStation 5-> PlayStation 5 Pro makes sense.

Xbox->Xbox 360->Xbox One S OR Xbox One X->Xbox Series S OR Xbox Series X on the other hand, makes no sense and isn't intuitive to figure out which one you want.

Submission + - Elon Musk admits DOGE was a waste of time (and money) (yahoo.com)

Submitted by echo123
echo123 writes: Elon Musk appeared to admit for the first time that his work at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency was a total waste of time—which also destroyed his reputation.

He told Katie Miller, who is married to Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, that he would not take the controversial post in Washington, D.C., if he had his time over again.

“I think instead of doing DOGE, I would have basically built—worked on my companies, essentially," he told The Katie Miller Podcast.

“If you could go back and start from scratch like it’s January 20th all again, would you go back and do it differently? And, knowing what you know now, do you think there’s ever a place to restart?”

After a deep sigh, Elon Musk, 54, replied, “I mean, no, I don’t think so.”

“You gave up a lot to DOGE,” she said.

“Yeah,” he conceded, sadly.

DOGE oversaw a $220 billion jump in federal spending—not including interest—in the fiscal year, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Bill Gates has warned Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts will cause ‘millions of deaths’

Submission + - The rise of the electrostate (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: China’s massive lead in clean technologies has shifted the global climate fight from one of big pledges and international diplomacy toward a technological revolution in cheaper energy, analysts say.
The accelerated adoption of clean technologies — particularly solar and wind power, as well as electric vehicles — has challenged long-held assumptions about how central fossil fuels are to modern industrial development, as well as which countries would lead the world in the climate fight.
The contrast between countries embracing clean technologies and countries still dependent on producing and burning fossil fuels is also becoming wider. Countries like the U.S., now the world's largest oil producer, could be left behind in the race for the energy sources of the future.

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It appears that PL/I (and its dialects) is, or will be, the most widely used higher level language for systems programming. -- J. Sammet

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