Latest News
Last updated 21 Jan, 11:38 PM
BBC News
Trump says he has 'framework' of a Greenland deal as he drops Europe tariffs threat - At Davos, the US president said he would not use force to take the island and later floated a possible "forever" deal.
Chris Mason: Latest twist in Trump diplomacy brings relief for Starmer - The row over Greenland risked uprooting the PM's carefully cultivated relationship with the US president.
Tetchy and emotional exchanges as Harry in court for what could be last time - The Duke of Sussex's manner showed how personal this was to him, delivering terse and sometimes tense answers.
Oldest cave painting of red claw hand could rewrite human creativity timeline - A stencilled outline of a hand found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is the world's oldest known cave painting, researchers say.
Olivia Dean and Lola Young dominate Brit Award nominations - A new wave of pop stars lead the shortlist, while Pulp pick up their first nomination in 30 years.
The Register
Davos discussion mulls how to keep AI agents from running wild - Where the shiny new FOMO object collides with insider-threat reality AI agents arrived in Davos this week with the question of how to secure them - and prevent agents from becoming the ultimate insider threat - taking center stage during a panel discussion on cyber threats.…
AI hasn't delivered the profits it was hyped for, says Deloitte - Business transformation, but not much remuneration Making money isn't everything ... at least not when it comes to AI. Research from professional services firm Deloitte shows that, for most companies, adopting AI tools hasn't helped the bottom line at all. But researchers still sing the technology's praises.…
MIT boffins create device that 'paints' iridescent structural color in real time - From adaptive wearables to light-based signaling ideas, researchers are exploring what comes next The feathers of a hummingbird, the wings of a butterfly, and the sparkle of an opal are all examples of nature's ability to produce structural, iridescent colors that typically require lab-grade materials and techniques to replicate. An MIT team says it has found a way to make that process far more accessible.…
House GOP wants final say on AI chip exports after Trump gives Nvidia a China hall pass - Bill still needs to pass the House and Senate before the president can sign or veto it President Trump's decision to green-light the sale of Nvidia H200 GPUs to China isn't sitting well with some of his Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives. These GOP politicians have proposed a bill that would give Congress final say over the export of AI chips to China and other countries of concern.…
Don't click on the LastPass 'create backup' link - it's a scam - Phishing campaign tries to reel in master passwords Password managers make great targets for attackers because they can hold many of the keys to your kingdom. Now, LastPass has warned customers about phishing emails claiming that action is required ahead of scheduled maintenance and told them not to fall for the scam. …
New Scientist - Home
Our earliest vertebrate ancestors may have had four eyes - Extraordinary fossils of 518-million-year-old jawless fish, among the earliest known vertebrates, appear to show that these animals had two pairs of eyes
Oldest known rock art is a 68,000-year-old hand stencil with claws - Newly discovered rock art sites in Sulawesi, Indonesia, that date to nearly 68,000 years ago are thought to be the oldest rock art in the world, pre-dating Neanderthal hand stencils in Spain by 1100 years
Ape-like hominin Paranthropus was more adaptable than we thought - A fossil discovery in northern Ethiopia expands the known range of Paranthropus, a genus of strong-jawed hominins that lived around 2 million years ago, and suggests they lived in a range of habitats
Bird retinas work without oxygen, and now scientists know how - The light-sensitive tissue of birds’ eyes is not supplied with oxygen by blood vessels – instead, it powers itself with a flood of sugar, and this may have evolutionary benefits
The 3 best ways to tackle anxiety, according to a leading expert - It is impossible to get rid of anxiety because it exists to help us, says cognitive psychotherapist Owen O'Kane. Instead, he suggests three ways to reframe your relationship with anxiety in order to take back control
Hacker News
Show HN: ChartGPU – WebGPU-powered charting library (1M points at 60fps) - Comments
Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt When Using an AI Assistant - Comments
Show HN: TerabyteDeals – Compare storage prices by $/TB - Comments
Claude's new constitution - Comments
Golfing APL/K in 90 Lines of Python - Comments
Slashdot
Apple Developing AI Wearable Pin - According to a report by The Information (paywalled), Apple is reportedly developing an AirTag-sized, camera-equipped AI wearable pin that could arrive as early as 2027. "Apple's pin, which is a thin, flat, circular disc with an aluminum-and-glass shell, features two cameras -- a standard lens and a wide-angle lens -- on its front face, designed to capture photos and videos of the user's surroundings," reports The Information, citing people familiar with the device. "It also includes three microphones to pick up sounds in the area surrounding the person wearing it. It has a speaker, a physical button along one of its edges and a magnetic inductive charging interface on its back, similar to the one used on the Apple Watch..." 9to5Mac reports: The Information also notes that Apple is attempting to speed up development in hopes of competing with OpenAI's first wearable (slated to debut in 2026), and that it is not immediately clear whether this wearable would work in conjunction with other products, such as AirPods or Apple's reported upcoming smart glasses. Today's report also notes that this has been a challenging market for new companies, citing the recent failure of Humane's AI Pin as an example. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Nova Launcher Gets a New Owner and Ads - Nova Launcher has been acquired by Instabridge, which says it will keep the app maintained but is evaluating ad-supported options for the free version. Android Authority reports: Today, Nova Launcher announced that the Swedish company Instabridge has acquired it from Branch Metrics. Instabridge claims it wants to be a responsible owner of Nova and does not want to reinvent the launcher overnight. However, the launcher still needs a sustainable business model to support ongoing development and maintenance. To this end, Instabridge is exploring different options, including paid tiers and ad-supported options for the free version. The new owners claim that if ads are introduced, Nova Prime will remain ad-free. However, this is misleading, as ads are already here for some users. Last year, the founder and original programmer of Nova Launcher left the company, signaling its "death" as he had been the sole developer working on the launcher for the past year. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
HAM Radio Operators In Belarus Arrested, Face the Death Penalty - An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: The Belarusian government is threatening three HAM radio operators with the death penalty, detained at least seven people, and has accused them of "intercepting state secrets," according to Belarusian state media, independent media outside of Belarus, and the Belarusian human rights organization Viasna. The arrests are an extreme attack on what is most often a wholesome hobby that has a history of being vilified by authoritarian governments in part because the technology is quite censorship resistant. The detentions were announced last week on Belarusian state TV, which claimed the men were part of a network of more than 50 people participating in the amateur radio hobby and have been accused of both "espionage" and "treason." Authorities there said they seized more than 500 pieces of radio equipment. The men were accused on state TV of using radio to spy on the movement of government planes, though no actual evidence of this has been produced. State TV claimed they were associated with the Belarusian Federation of Radioamateurs and Radiosportsmen (BFRR), a long-running amateur radio club and nonprofit that holds amateur radio competitions, meetups, trainings, and forums. Siarhei Besarab, a Belarusian HAM radio operator, posted a plea for support from others in the r/amateurradio subreddit. "I am writing this because my local community is being systematically liquidated in what I can only describe as a targeted intellectual genocide," Besarab wrote. "I beg you to amplify this signal and help us spread this information. Please show this to any journalist you know, send it to human rights organizations, and share it with your local radio associations." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Ozempic is Reshaping the Fast Food Industry - New research from Cornell University has tracked how households change their spending after someone starts taking GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy, and the numbers are material enough to explain why food industry earnings calls keep blaming everything except the obvious culprit. The study analyzed transaction data from 150,000 households linked to survey responses on medication adoption. Households cut grocery spending by 5.3% within six months of a member starting GLP-1s; high-income households cut by 8.2%. Fast food spending fell 8.0%. Savory snacks took the biggest hit at 10.1%, followed by sweets and baked goods. Yogurt was the only category to see a statistically significant increase. As of July 2024, 16.3% of U.S. households had at least one GLP-1 user. Nearly half of adopters reported taking the medication specifically for weight loss rather than diabetes management. About 34% of users discontinue within the sample period, and when they stop, candy and chocolate purchases rise 11.4% above pre-adoption levels. Further reading: Weighing the Cost of Smaller Appetites. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Half of World's CO2 Emissions Come From Just 32 Fossil Fuel Firms, Study Shows - Just 32 fossil fuel companies were responsible for half the global carbon dioxide emissions driving the climate crisis in 2024, down from 36 a year earlier, a report has revealed. The Guardian: Saudi Aramco was the biggest state-controlled polluter and ExxonMobil was the largest investor-owned polluter. Critics accused the leading fossil fuel companies of "sabotaging climate action" and "being on the wrong side of history" but said the emissions data was increasingly being used to hold the companies accountable. State-owned fossil fuel producers made up 17 of the top 20 emitters in the Carbon Majors report, which the authors said underscored the political barriers to tackling global heating. All 17 are controlled by countries that opposed a proposed fossil fuel phaseout at the Cop30 UN climate summit in December, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and India. More than 80 other nations had backed the phaseout plan. Read more of this story at Slashdot.