Comment Welcome to third world status (Score 2) 206
The stupid are in control.
Submission + - Sterilized flies to be released in order to stop flesh-eating maggot infestation (cbsnews.com)
Beeftopia writes: From CBS News: "The targeted pest is the flesh-eating larva of the New World Screwworm fly. The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to ramp up the breeding and distribution of adult male flies — sterilizing them with radiation before releasing them. They mate with females in the wild, and the eggs laid by the female aren't fertilized and don't hatch. There are fewer larvae, and over time, the fly population dies out.
It is more effective and environmentally friendly than spraying the pest into oblivion, and it is how the U.S. and other nations north of Panama eradicated the same pest decades ago. Sterile flies from a factory in Panama kept the flies contained there for years, but the pest appeared in southern Mexico late last year.... the U.S. and Mexico bred and released more than 94 billion sterile flies from 1962 through 1975 to eradicate the pest, according to the USDA. The numbers need to be large enough that females in the wild can't help but hook up with sterile males for mating."
A similar approach to certain species of mosquito is being debated. The impact on ecosystems is unclear.
It is more effective and environmentally friendly than spraying the pest into oblivion, and it is how the U.S. and other nations north of Panama eradicated the same pest decades ago. Sterile flies from a factory in Panama kept the flies contained there for years, but the pest appeared in southern Mexico late last year.... the U.S. and Mexico bred and released more than 94 billion sterile flies from 1962 through 1975 to eradicate the pest, according to the USDA. The numbers need to be large enough that females in the wild can't help but hook up with sterile males for mating."
A similar approach to certain species of mosquito is being debated. The impact on ecosystems is unclear.
Submission + - Cloudflare Begins "Pay Per Crawl" (businessinsider.com) 1
joshuark writes: Cloudflare will block Big Tech AI bot crawlers; the Pay Per Crawl lets creators charge AI giants for content access.
The moves address concerns about Big Tech exploiting content without consent or payment--a shift that could reshape the dynamics between content creators and AI companies. The company will automatically block AI crawlers from scraping the websites it powers, unless site owners explicitly opt in.
"Original content is what makes the internet one of the greatest inventions in the last century, and we have to come together to protect it," Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said.
Cloudflare hopes to create a transparent, consent-driven marketplace that helps creators decide whether to allow all AI crawlers, permit specific ones, or set their own access fees, turning previously unmonetized content usage into new revenue streams.
The moves address concerns about Big Tech exploiting content without consent or payment--a shift that could reshape the dynamics between content creators and AI companies. The company will automatically block AI crawlers from scraping the websites it powers, unless site owners explicitly opt in.
"Original content is what makes the internet one of the greatest inventions in the last century, and we have to come together to protect it," Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said.
Cloudflare hopes to create a transparent, consent-driven marketplace that helps creators decide whether to allow all AI crawlers, permit specific ones, or set their own access fees, turning previously unmonetized content usage into new revenue streams.
Comment But but but (Score 1) 86
"Ford CEO Predicts AI Could Eliminate Half of US White-Collar Jobs"
But not HIS job, amirite?
Submission + - You Can Now Rent a Flesh Computer Grown in a British Lab (sciencealert.com)
alternative_right writes: Each CL1 computer is formed of 800,000 neurons grown across a silicon chip, and their life-support system. While it can't yet match the mind-blowing capabilities of today's most powerful computers, the system has one very significant advantage: it only consumes a fraction of the energy of comparable technologies.
AI centers now consume countries' worth of energy, whereas a rack of CL1 machines only uses 1,000 watts and is naturally capable of adapting and learning in real time.
AI centers now consume countries' worth of energy, whereas a rack of CL1 machines only uses 1,000 watts and is naturally capable of adapting and learning in real time.
Comment Don't fall for it (Score 1) 58
"The visiting space object will pass near Mars and the Sun later this year before leaving the solar system forever."
That's what they want you to believe but I think we all know it's here to blow up the Earth.
Submission + - Nearly 1,000 Britons will keep shorter working week after trial (theguardian.com)
AmiMoJo writes: Nearly 1,000 British workers will keep a shorter working week after the latest trial of a four-day week and similar changes to traditional working patterns. All 17 British businesses in a six-month trial of the four-day week said they would continue with an arrangement consisting of either four days a week or nine days a fortnight. All the employees remained on their full salary. The trial was organised by the 4 Day Week Foundation, a group campaigning for more businesses to take up shorter working weeks. The latest test follows a larger six-month pilot in 2022, involving almost 3,000 employees, which ended in 56 of 61 companies cutting down their hours from a five-day working week.
The 4 Day Week Foundation is hoping to build on the shift around the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century, when campaigns led by trade unions gave birth to the two-day weekend. The previous norm for many people in Britain and other traditionally Christian countries had been a six-day working week, with time off only on Sundays.
The 4 Day Week Foundation is hoping to build on the shift around the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century, when campaigns led by trade unions gave birth to the two-day weekend. The previous norm for many people in Britain and other traditionally Christian countries had been a six-day working week, with time off only on Sundays.
Submission + - FaceTime in iOS 26 will freeze your call if someone starts undressing (9to5mac.com)
AmiMoJo writes: iOS 26 is a packed update for iPhone users thanks to the new Liquid Glass design and major updates for Messages, Wallet, CarPlay, and more. But another new feature was just discovered in the iOS 26 beta: FaceTime will now freeze your call’s video and audio if someone starts undressing.
When Apple unveiled iOS 26 last month, it mentioned a variety of new family tools coming for child accounts. One of those announcements involved a change coming to FaceTime to block nudity. "Communication Safety expands to intervene when nudity is detected in FaceTime video calls, and to blur out nudity in Shared Albums in Photos."
However, at least in the iOS 26 beta, it seems that a similar feature may be in place for all users—adults included.
When Apple unveiled iOS 26 last month, it mentioned a variety of new family tools coming for child accounts. One of those announcements involved a change coming to FaceTime to block nudity. "Communication Safety expands to intervene when nudity is detected in FaceTime video calls, and to blur out nudity in Shared Albums in Photos."
However, at least in the iOS 26 beta, it seems that a similar feature may be in place for all users—adults included.
Comment Re:Reality 101 (Score 1) 60
They need our combined help to suffer.
Comment Absolutely (Score 1) 22
This is one thing that I'll absolutely use AI for- it's often very good at summing up meeting notes and all the drek that goes along with it- dropped files, links, references to other projects, etc etc.
It gives me back at least an hour a day, an hour of the most tedious, mind-numbing work that I would have to do. So yeah, for this use case I'm all in.
Submission + - US Embassy: open your social media profiles (usembassy.gov)
rastos1 writes: U.S. Embassies in countries around the world, have following on their website:
Notice: Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an F, M, or J nonimmigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media accounts to ‘public’ to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States under U.S. law.
Notice: Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an F, M, or J nonimmigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media accounts to ‘public’ to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States under U.S. law.
Submission + - The top red teamer in the US is an AI bot (csoonline.com)
alternative_right writes: The hacker “Xbow” now tops an eminent US security industry leaderboard that ranks red teamers based on reputation — and it’s an AI chatbot.
On HackerOne, which connects organizations with ethical hackers to participate in their bug bounty programs, Xbow scored notably higher than 99 other hackers in identifying and reporting enterprise software vulnerabilities. It’s a first in bug bounty history, according to the company that operates the eponymous bot.
On HackerOne, which connects organizations with ethical hackers to participate in their bug bounty programs, Xbow scored notably higher than 99 other hackers in identifying and reporting enterprise software vulnerabilities. It’s a first in bug bounty history, according to the company that operates the eponymous bot.
Submission + - Trump's feud with Harvard endangers 50 years of women's health samples (cnn.com) 2
quonset writes: For fifty years, Harvard has been collecting medical information and samples from female nurses. The data have led to deeper insights and contributed a better understanding into human health. However, President Trump's feud with Harvard may see all the information and samples being discarded.
Study data gathered through the years from some 280,000 nurses in the United States has contributed enormously to improving how we live. The work has informed dietary recommendations, including national dietary guidelines; led to hormonal therapies for breast cancer prevention and treatment; and contributed to research about how nutrients, inflammatory markers and heavy metals influence disease development.
Funding for the Nurses’ Health Study and its companion study for men, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, had already been abruptly withdrawn in mid-May, said Harvard nutritionist Dr. Walter Willett, who has led the studies since 1980.
Willett and his team were left scrambling to find the funds needed to protect freezers stocked with stool, urine and DNA specimens gathered from thousand of nurses for nearly five decades. Just the liquid nitrogen needed to keep the specimens frozen costs thousands of dollars a month.
“Of course, we would all love to have an agreement that lets us get on with research, education, and working to improve the health and well-being of everyone.” said Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, who has published over 2,000 papers on nutrition.
“But this can’t happen if we turn over admissions, faculty hiring and curriculum to governmental control.”
Study data gathered through the years from some 280,000 nurses in the United States has contributed enormously to improving how we live. The work has informed dietary recommendations, including national dietary guidelines; led to hormonal therapies for breast cancer prevention and treatment; and contributed to research about how nutrients, inflammatory markers and heavy metals influence disease development.
Funding for the Nurses’ Health Study and its companion study for men, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, had already been abruptly withdrawn in mid-May, said Harvard nutritionist Dr. Walter Willett, who has led the studies since 1980.
Willett and his team were left scrambling to find the funds needed to protect freezers stocked with stool, urine and DNA specimens gathered from thousand of nurses for nearly five decades. Just the liquid nitrogen needed to keep the specimens frozen costs thousands of dollars a month.
“Of course, we would all love to have an agreement that lets us get on with research, education, and working to improve the health and well-being of everyone.” said Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, who has published over 2,000 papers on nutrition.
“But this can’t happen if we turn over admissions, faculty hiring and curriculum to governmental control.”
Submission + - Google's Data Center Energy Use Doubled In 4 Years (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader writes: No wonder Google is desperate for more power: The company’s data centers more than doubled their electricity use in just four years. The eye-popping stat comes from Google’s most recent sustainability report, which it released late last week. In 2024, Google data centers used 30.8 million megawatt-hours of electricity. That’s up from 14.4 million megawatt-hours in 2020, the earliest year Google broke out data center consumption. Google has pledged to use only carbon-free sources of electricity to power its operations, a task made more challenging by its breakneck pace of data center growth. And the company’s electricity woes are almost entirely a data center problem. In 2024, data centers accounted for 95.8% of the entire company’s electron budget.
The company’s ratio of data-center-to-everything-else has been remarkably consistent over the last four years. Though 2020 is the earliest year Google has made data center electricity consumption figures available, it’s possible to use that ratio to extrapolate back in time. Some quick math reveals that Google’s data centers likely used just over 4 million megawatt-hours of electricity in 2014. That’s sevenfold growth in just a decade. The tech company has already picked most of the low-hanging fruit by improving the efficiency of its data centers. Those efforts have paid off, and the company is frequently lauded for being at the leading edge. But as the company’s power usage effectiveness (PUE) has approached the theoretical ideal of 1.0, progress has slowed. Last year, Google’s company-wide PUE dropped to 1.09, a 0.01 improvement over 2023 but only 0.02 better than a decade ago.
The company’s ratio of data-center-to-everything-else has been remarkably consistent over the last four years. Though 2020 is the earliest year Google has made data center electricity consumption figures available, it’s possible to use that ratio to extrapolate back in time. Some quick math reveals that Google’s data centers likely used just over 4 million megawatt-hours of electricity in 2014. That’s sevenfold growth in just a decade. The tech company has already picked most of the low-hanging fruit by improving the efficiency of its data centers. Those efforts have paid off, and the company is frequently lauded for being at the leading edge. But as the company’s power usage effectiveness (PUE) has approached the theoretical ideal of 1.0, progress has slowed. Last year, Google’s company-wide PUE dropped to 1.09, a 0.01 improvement over 2023 but only 0.02 better than a decade ago.
Submission + - Xerox buys Lexmark for $15 billion as print industry clings to relevance (nerds.xyz)
BrianFagioli writes: In a move that feels straight out of a different era, Xerox has officially acquired Lexmark for $1.5 billion. The deal includes net debt and assumed liabilities, and it pulls Lexmark out of the hands of Chinese ownership and into a freshly restructured Xerox. Thatâ(TM)s a lot of money for a company best known for making machines that spit out paper.
According to Xerox, this is all part of a âoeReinventionâ strategy. The company now claims it will be one of the top five players in every major print category and the leader in managed print services. Bold claim. Whether it actually matters is another story.
According to Xerox, this is all part of a âoeReinventionâ strategy. The company now claims it will be one of the top five players in every major print category and the leader in managed print services. Bold claim. Whether it actually matters is another story.
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The best book on programming for the layman is "Alice in Wonderland"; but that's because it's the best book on anything for the layman.
