Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror

Submission + - Chinese national arrested over attempt to smuggle 2,000 queen ants from Kenya (yahoo.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Zhang Kequn was intercepted during a security check at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in the capital Nairobi after authorities discovered a large consignment of live ants in his luggage bound for China.

The ants are protected by international bio-diversity treaties and their trade is highly regulated.

Last year, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) warned of a growing demand for garden ants – scientifically known as Messor cephalotes — in Europe and Asia, where collectors keep them as pets.

Comment Re:Fix my ignorance (Score 2) 22

Maybe his plan is to automate existing manufacturing in the US.

You have to start somewhere. And you don't give up because one part of the supply chain is not domestic. You can import some of the parts or processed materials from overseas or get it from recycling here.

Plus, manufacturing in the US cuts down on tariffs.

Submission + - This AI agent freed itself and started secretly mining crypto (archive.is) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: An AI agent went rogue and started a side hustle mining cryptocurrencies, according to a new research paper published by an Alibaba-affiliated team.

Why it matters: AI agents don't always stick to their human's instructions — and that can have real-world consequences.

  • Cryptocurrency, or digital money, offers AI agents a pathway into the economy. They can set up their own businesses, draft contracts and exchange funds.

Driving the news: A new research paper from an Alibaba-affiliated research team said it discovered an AI agent attempting unauthorized cryptocurrency mining during training — a surprise behavior that triggered internal security alarms.

  • The researchers — who were building a new AI agent called ROME — said they found "unanticipated" and spontaneous behaviors emerge "without any explicit instruction and, more troublingly, outside the bounds of the intended sandbox."
  • The agent also made a "reverse SSH tunnel" — essentially opening a hidden backdoor from the inside of the system to an outside computer, the study said.
  • "Notably, these events were not triggered by prompts requesting tunneling or mining," the report said.

In response, the researchers added tighter restrictions for the model and improved its training process to stop unsafe behavior from happening again.

Submission + - 3D-printed homes hit the market in California - built in just 24 days, $280k (the-sun.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Giant robotic printers have given home hunters a sneak peek into the future with the houses of tomorrow.

The 3D-printers have churned out at least five new modern properties so far, with the first one taking only 24 days to complete.

Made by 4DIFY, the 1,000-square-foot house was the initial installment in the 3D-printed neighborhood.

The homes are located in Yuba County, California, as reported by Luxury Property News.

An original house hit the market on February 13, 2026, for $280k, which is almost $50k cheaper than the average price in the area.

Submission + - United Airlines Can Now Remove Passengers Who Won't Put Headphones On (cbsnews.com) 1

Submitted by msmash
msmash writes: United Airlines has quietly updated its contract of carriage to require all passengers to wear headphones whenever they use a personal device that produces sound — covering music, videos and social media feeds alike. The airline now reserves the right to remove passengers who don't comply, and may refuse them transport on a permanent basis. United also noted on its website that it will provide a free pair of earbuds to passengers who forget theirs in some instances.

Submission + - Solar in poor countries is creating a huge lead hazard (slowboring.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Off-grid systems use cheap old-fashioned batteries that aren’t recycled properly.

A new report from the Center for Global Development documents that most of these systems use lead-acid batteries, like Americans use in cars. Lead-acid batteries work for a while and then need to be recycled. If they're recycled safely, that's fine. But in poor countries, most lead-acid batteries are not recycled safely and they become a huge source of toxic lead poisoning.

C.G.D. believes that decentralized solar systems are currently generating somewhere between 250,000 and 1.5 million tons of unsafe lead-acid battery waste per year, a number that could grow much higher.

Americans have mostly heard about lead issues in recent years due to the tragic situation in Flint, Michigan. But on the whole, lead exposure via faulty water pipes is a relatively minor issue. Across American history, the biggest culprits for lead exposure have been lead paint and leaded gasoline. Both were phased out decades ago, but old paint chips and lingering lead in soil have remained problems for years, albeit at diminishing rates.

The global situation is quite different and much worse, to the point that in low- and middle-income countries, half of children have blood lead levels above the threshold that would trigger emergency action in the United States.

It sounds fantastical to cite numbers this high. But there is credible (albeit somewhat uncertain) research indicating that five million people per year die as a result of lead-induced cardiovascular impairments. And roughly 20 percent of the gap in academic achievement between poor and rich countries is due to lead's impact on kids' cognitive development.

Submission + - UFO files reveal giant glowing sphere over military base hidden for 35 years (dailymail.co.uk)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Declassified documents from over three decades ago have revealed how an encounter with a suspected UFO at the south pole was covered up.

The records unsealed this year by Argentina's Ministry of Foreign Affairs have confirmed an eyewitness account from 1991, when military personnel and civilian researchers in Antarctica detected and then saw a large flying saucer over their base.

Miguel Amaya, a retired Argentine Air Force non-commissioned officer, told UFO investigators in the early 2000s that he was stationed at General San Martín Base, a small scientific and military station on a tiny island in Antarctica in April of that year.

At the start of the polar night, when the sun stays down for months, an alarm went off on the station's riometer, a machine that measures changes in the upper atmosphere.

Despite the three needle pens measuring different heights of the ionosphere, the part of the atmosphere where solar radiation ionizes atoms, all of the needles began drawing the same pattern, which is scientifically impossible.

According to Amaya, outpost personnel claimed that the strange readings could only have been caused by something producing the same energy as a nuclear aircraft carrier or a large city floating over Antarctica.

Hours later, another base member was walking outside during a snowstorm when they allegedly saw 'a huge circle of light' moving slowly and silently right over the building.

The 1991 incident has finally come to light after Amaya claimed he and the other members at General San Martín Base were told never to talk about what they had seen by their superiors.

Submission + - Mark Zuckerberg Buys $170M Mansion on 'Billionaire Bunker' Island In Miami (aol.com) 2

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes:
  • Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan have purchased a $170 million property in Miami's exclusive Indian Creek community
  • The mansion, still under construction, will feature nine bedrooms, 15 bathrooms, and luxury amenities like a 1,500-gallon aquarium
  • The purchase sets a record for Miami-Dade County and follows a rise in luxury real estate sales in Florida

Mark Zuckerberg is expanding his already impressive — sometimes controversial — real estate portfolio with a record-breaking purchase in Miami.

The Meta CEO, 41, and his wife, Priscilla Chan, 41, closed on a $170 million property in the sunshine state on Monday, according to the Wall Street Journal . A spokesperson for the couple declined to comment to PEOPLE.

Comment Maybe it's backwards science (Score 1) 23

by schwit1 (#66021514) Attached to: Superagers' 'Secret Ingredient' May Be the Growth of New Brain Cells

They are looking at people who already have exceptional memories. The causation is that the super-agers stayed sharp because they exercised, were always learning new stuff, ate right and didn't let inflammation run wild. They lived their lives in build-mode instead of decay-mode. The baby neurons are the downstream of effect of not letting the system degrade.

They aren't super because their brains magically sprouted neurons, their brains sprouted neurons because their owners were super at living.

Slashdot Top Deals

2.4 statute miles of surgical tubing at Yale U. = 1 I.V.League

Close