184523650
submission
fjo3 writes:
Garbage trucks could soon do more than collect trash—they may also help identify code violations using artificial intelligence (AI).
Officials in Cape Coral, Florida, recently considered equipping sanitation trucks with AI-powered cameras that would photograph properties as crews complete their normal collection routes.
The system would have been designed to identify potential issues such as overgrown lawns, peeling paint, and illegal dumping, and to flag violations so the city staff can review them later before taking enforcement action.
184499014
submission
fjo3 writes:
Believe it or not, the CD—yes, that CD— is having a resurgence. In fact, new data reveals that Gen Z seems to be buying up the outdated music format without even having a way to play it.
On a broader note, physical media seems to be having a big moment in 2026. Through the first half of the year, total physical album sales on vinyl, CDs, and cassettes reached 38.2 million units in the United States. This equates to a 7.8 percent increase.
So how did all this come about? Well, it seems that younger music fans have been driving a lot of the retro revival. The report shows that in 2026, 60 percent of Gen Z listeners said they most often listen to music from the 1990s and older. This is a massive increase from the 18 percent marker in 2021.
184497092
submission
fjo3 writes:
Friday’s loss of 5.43% marked a sixth-straight losing day and came after Elon Musk’s space and artificial intelligence company aborted a test flight for its Starship rocket.
The aerospace giant was expected to launch its Starship mega rocket within a 90-minute window at 5:45 p.m. in Texas on Thursday, but an engine ignition failure forced SpaceX to scrub the launch.
“Some of the engines didn’t start, triggering an automatic launch abort,” billionaire founder Musk said in a post on X. “Now offloading propellant. Next launch attempt hopefully in a few days.”
184481848
submission
fjo3 writes:
In April, someone threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman's San Francisco home, and within days a second attack put gunfire into the property. The Wall Street Journal reports that AI executives are hardening personal security as opposition to the industry moves from online posts into the physical world.
Prosecutors say Daniel Moreno-Gama, the 20-year-old accused in the first attack, traveled from Texas to San Francisco intending to kill Altman, and had writings on him about AI's purported risk to humanity. He faces two counts of attempted murder and attempted arson in California state court. Two more suspects were later arrested in connection with the second incident. Around the same time, The Information described Silicon Valley leaning into a new breed of bodyguards for AI leadership.
The pressure isn't only on the people at the top. According to the Data Center Watch Q1 2026 report, organized opposition groups roughly doubled from 396 at the end of last year to 833 by the end of March, spanning 49 states, and opponents blocked or delayed at least 75 projects worth about $130 billion in a single quarter. That is a very different problem from a viral tweet. It is permits denied, votes lost, sites relocated.
184474558
submission
fjo3 writes:
Chinese users of AI-powered companion bots have bid heart-rending farewells to their virtual buddies as national regulations took effect Wednesday aimed at curbing the risk of emotional dependency.
The phenomenon of artificial intelligence boyfriends and girlfriends is growing worldwide, along with the prevalence of human-like avatars that sell products or stand in for loved ones who have died.
But these interactive tools must not "excessively cater to users, induce emotional dependence or addiction, and damage users' real interpersonal relationships", China's new rulebook says.
Major AI providers including ByteDance's Doubao, Alibaba's Qwen, and Tencent's Yuanbao announced the suspension of their custom AI agent and companion features ahead of the Wednesday deadline.
184399732
submission
fjo3 writes:
Walsh and his colleagues explored a different approach: modifying near-Earth space to reduce the impact of incoming solar storms. The idea draws inspiration from a natural process in which particles from Earth’s upper atmosphere drift outward and help reinforce parts of the planet’s magnetosphere. This magnetic bubble shields Earth from charged particles.
Under the proposed StormWall architecture, six spacecraft would operate in geosynchronous orbit. Each vehicle would carry stores of material such as barium or lithium. When a major solar storm is forecast, the spacecraft would release this material into space. Sunlight would ionise the particles, creating a cloud of plasma that spreads toward the outer regions of Earth’s magnetosphere.
According to the team’s computer simulations, the added plasma could alter how solar storm energy enters the magnetosphere. In some scenarios, it reduced the intensity of a major geomagnetic storm by roughly 50% and redirected a significant fraction of the incoming energy away from Earth.
184386142
submission
fjo3 writes:
Yaghi hopes to lead team using AI to create materials to tackle global challenges such as carbon neutrality and water shortages
Omar Yaghi, the winner of last year's Nobel Prize for chemistry, has left the United States to lead a new AI-driven research centre at China's Tsinghua University.
The 61-year-old materials scientist will head a team working on ways artificial intelligence (AI) can transform the design and synthesis of new materials and shorten their development cycle "by orders of magnitude", Tsinghua said on Friday.
Speaking at his appointment ceremony, Yaghi said he hoped to develop materials to tackle major environmental challenges such as water shortages, carbon neutrality and sustainable development.
184349810
submission
fjo3 writes:
If gratification is so easy, why don’t you feel more gratified already? Because it’s gotten harder. It’s still easy to experience individual feats of gratification when you find them (or they find you). But the ordinary circumstances that once produced so much gratification have gradually receded. Unseen choices in design, business, and social life have made it harder for you to engage directly with the sensory world.
184326100
submission
fjo3 writes:
Cancer has a dirty trick: it can put itself to sleep. When tumor cells slip into a kind of biological hibernation, they become hard to kill, shrugging off treatment and lying low until conditions improve, then waking up and bringing the disease back. For decades, researchers have struggled to shut down this hiding strategy without causing serious harm elsewhere in the body. A team in Switzerland has now built a molecule that flips on and off with flashes of light, giving scientists a precise new way to probe, and possibly disrupt, the way sleeping cancer cells hide.
Behind this cellular sleep state, at least in certain cancers, sits a protein called the glucocorticoid receptor, a sensor inside cells that reacts to stress hormones. When it switches on, it can push cancer cells, especially in some solid tumors such as lung cancer, into a drug-resistant, dormant state. The obvious fix would be to destroy the receptor outright, but there is a catch: the same receptor does important jobs all over the body, including calming inflammation. Removing it everywhere would cause real damage. What was needed was a way to hit the receptor inside a tumor and leave the rest of the body alone.
184313152
submission
fjo3 writes:
According to a new “Survey of Adult Skills” conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development — a forum for 38 high-income, predominantly Western countries — a not insignificant number of adult students enrolled in higher education are now reading and doing math at a level which, in a more functional society, would be alarming for a middle schooler.
184209076
submission
fjo3 writes:
Essentially, these are fake websites that allow people to chase the dopamine hit they get before making a purchase, be it ordering a takeaway or shopping.
However, the key difference between these and regular websites is that you’re not actually spending any money, and your order will never arrive. The whole experience is gamified from start to finish, allowing you to satisfy your cravings without indulging.
184196506
submission
fjo3 writes:
As the U.S. marks a milestone celebration, the Mirror U.S. analyzed Fed data on household wealth distribution since 1990 to put into perspective the direction the country is heading in terms of growing wealth inequality, given that the country has the highest concentration of ultra-high-net-worth individuals globally.
“The fact is that wealth for some and wealth inequality is growing in dimensions that we’ve never seen before,” said Steven Durlauf, the director of the Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility at the University of Chicago.
184100844
submission
fjo3 writes:
Eight in 10 Australian children are still using social media despite their government’s ban on access to under-16s, research has revealed.
The study, by the University of Newcastle in Australia, suggested there was “insufficient evidence” to show “any substantive effects” on children’s use of social media, more than six months after the ban was introduced in December.
Australian ministers have blamed social media platforms for “systemic breaches” of the ban after the tech companies failed to remove or block children from their sites.
184100834
submission
fjo3 writes:
The heat on Wednesday alone, when the temperature soared as high as 112.3 degrees Fahrenheit (44.3 degrees Celsius), exceeded the 2050 projections in 19 out of 34 locations across mainland France — far sooner than some may have expected.
Some places surpassed those hypothetical future temperatures by more than 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
It’s part of a dramatic shift in heat wave frequency across the country. Half of the heat waves observed since 1947 have occurred since 2010.
184057366
submission
fjo3 writes:
The latest heatwave sweeping across Europe is a stark reminder that it is the world's fastest-warming continent, stretching into an Arctic that is heating at an even greater pace.
Britain, France, Italy and Spain have issued red alerts and health warnings for much of their territory this week as the region endures its second heat episode since May.
