Latest News

Last updated 06 Dec, 04:07 PM

BBC News

Rare red wind warning issued as Storm Darragh approaches UK - The Met Office says the approaching storm poses a danger to life in coastal parts of Wales and south-west England.

Damascus and Assad now in Syrian rebels' sights - The sudden offensive could become the biggest threat to Syria's president in 13 years of civil war.

Justin Welby says sorry for hurting abuse survivors in final Lords speech - The Archbishop of Canterbury apologises for causing "further distress" to survivors of the scandal.

Romanian court annuls result of presidential election first round - The move comes after allegations of Russian influence via social media on the first round of voting.

Jury awards $300m payout to family of teen who died on Orlando ride - Tyre Sampson fell 30m (98ft) from the ride at ICON Park in Orlando which had no seat belts.

The Register

Vega-C finally launches ESA's next Sentinel satellite - Return to flight almost two years since the previous endeavor failed Arianespace has finally managed to return the Vega-C to flight carrying a Sentinel payload for the European Space Agency (ESA).…

Intel aims to reinvent itself as foundry focus sharpens amid leadership shake-up - Interim chief David Zinsner claims core strategy intact, will stay the course to contract manufacturer Intel wants to be "the western provider of leading-edge silicon," according to interim co-chief executive David Zinsner, but needs a successful products division for this to be possible.…

Badass Russian techie outsmarts FSB, flees Putinland all while being tracked with spyware - Threatened with life in prison, Kyiv charity worker gives middle finger to state spies A Russian programmer defied the Federal Security Service (FSB) by publicizing the fact his phone was infected with spyware after being confiscated by authorities.…

Europe's largest local authority settles on ERP budget 5x original estimate - Schools taken out of scope, but £108M plan still dwarfs initial £20M Europe's largest local authority has settled on a £108 million ($137 million) bill for its disastrous replacement of SAP with Oracle until 2026, five times the sum initially predicted and five years late.…

Veteran Microsoft engineer shares some enterprise support tips - How to tell a customer they're an idiot without telling them they're an idiot Microsoft veteran Raymond Chen revealed another product support trick from within the corridors of Microsoft. This time, it's not about blowing on connectors but about avoiding casting some embarrassing shade on a customer's purchasing decisions.…

New Scientist - News

Mathematicians have discovered a mind-blowing new kind of infinity - It may sound strange, but mathematicians have created an entire ladder of infinities, each larger than the next. Now a new kind of infinity threatens to upset that order, and perhaps redefine the structure of the mathematical universe

Conservationists are collecting semen from endangered wild sharks - Scuba divers will attempt to collect semen from at least nine wild male leopard sharks for the first time, for use in captive breeding programmes aiming to boost wild populations

We finally have an explanation for 2023’s record-breaking temperatures - A decline in low-lying cloud cover means Earth is absorbing more solar radiation, which could explain 0.2°C of missing heat scientists have been struggling to account for

Why scientists scanned giant hailstones in a dentist's office - A high-resolution view of hailstones the size of tennis balls can reveal how they form – and help researchers better forecast which storms will generate these destructive pieces of ice

H5N1 bird flu is closer to gaining pandemic potential than we thought - The flu virus currently circulating in birds and dairy cows is already better at infecting people than earlier variants, and a single mutation would allow it to bind to key human receptors

Hacker News

Install Docker Natively on Android Phone and Use It as a Home Server - Comments

Show HN: BunkerWeb – The Open-Source Web Application Firewall (WAF) - Comments

We fixed our documentation with the Diátaxis framework - Comments

Show HN: Hacker Herald – like HN but with crowdsourced pics and subtitles - Comments

ExxonMobil's Alleged Hack-for-Hire Campaign Targeting Climate Activists - Comments

Slashdot

Mozilla's Announces 'JavaScriptmas' - Daily Coding Challenges with a Chance at Prizes - Mozilla's developer blog is announcing "JavaScriptmas". [F]rom December 1st to December 24th, we will release a fun, daily coding challenge for you to solve on [code-learning platform] Scrimba. Each challenge comes with an introductory screencast called "scrim", some starter code, and then it's your turn to fill in the gaps. JavaScriptmas is about coding, learning, and the chance to win exciting prizes. Two lucky coders will be chosen as winners at the end of JavaScriptmas, and each will win a MacBook Air M3, swag from MDN and Scrimba, and a lifetime Scrimba Pro membership (worth ~$200 per year). The Scrimba membership will give you access to all courses, including the Frontend Developer Career Path based on the MDN curriculum. Most of the challenges will evolve around JavaScript algorithms. You will also practice subjects like DOM manipulation, UI design, CSS, accessibility, and even a bit of cyber security. The challenges are a collaborative effort from Scrimba teachers, mentors, and MDN content writers, all with the goal of turning you into a more well-rounded web developer. Winners will be chosen randomly from everyone who submits correct solutions. We want JavaScriptmas to be accessible for both beginners and experienced developers alike. That said, the more challenges you solve, the better your chances of winning! To maximize your chances, try to solve all 24 challenges and submit them as both regular entries and social entries. You don't have to submit your solutions on the same day they're published — the deadline for any submission is midnight UTC on Christmas Eve. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Do Electric Cars Offer 'Fake Shifting, Real Fun'? - The Verge is applauding Hyundai's electric SUV, the IONIQ 5 for "Fake shifting, real fun." And others agree. "The Ioniq 5 N is also special for how it simulates the 'feel' of gear shifting," writes the blog Inside EVs, "including the jolt and brief interruption in power that happens and the mechanical resistance that's normal upon downshifting. "The Ioniq 5 N also simulates engine sounds through the speakers, will let you rev the 'engine' while parked and has a 'redline' you'll hit before you need to shift again. It's all great fun." [E]very single person who drives the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, whether they're a die-hard EV person or the most hardcore electro-skeptic, absolutely loves it. And they love the fake shifting most of all... Shut up and embrace the fake EV shifting, you nerds. Find some joy in your life for once. And joy will definitely be on order with the new 2025 Kia EV6 GT. The U.S.-spec version of Kia's updated crossover made its debut [November 21] at the L.A. Auto Show. And while there's still a lot we don't know about it, we have power specs and one key detail: the EV6 GT now gets a simulated gear shift feature. "The GT's new Virtual Gear Shift feature enhances driving immersion by simulating gear shifts with visuals, engine sound effects, and a tactile sensation through motor torque adjustments," Kia officials said in a news release. The Verge points out that Hyundai's Ioniq 5 N even uses speakers — both inside the car and outside — to broadcast the sounds of ignition, a boosted EV sound, and a third sound which "sounds like a robotic version of a fighter jet." Paired with the seemingly endless power and torque offered by the electric motors, I couldn't stop grinning. It's just like a little kid making car noises as they push a Hot Wheels car around a track, but combined with the driving experience in the Ioniq 5 N, it just taps into a pure enthusiast joy. Even kids around my neighborhood stopped and looked when I started the Ioniq 5 N up with the sound management turned on. They'd pull out their phones to take photos and videos as I drove off, happily faking the internal combustion engine experience and knowing I wasn't adding a drop of carbon to the atmosphere. The Ioniq 5 N just might be the performance EV that will change self-described "auto enthusiast" minds about the electric transition. It's that good. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

75 Years of Lead in Gasoline Caused 150 Million Mental Health Disorders, Study Finds - The use of lead in gasoline "might have harmed the mental health of a generation," reports USA Today. Gen X bears an extra burden of conditions such as depression, anxiety, ADHD and neurotic behavior because of the leaded gasoline they were exposed to as children, according to a study published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Leaded gas was banned in the United States in 1996, but the study said years of exposure during development made them particularly vulnerable. Lead gas peaked from the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s, and children born during that era would later develop some of the highest rates of mental health symptoms, the study said. The study also linked leaded gas to "disadvantageous" traits, such as struggling to concentrate, stay on task or organizing thoughts. "I tend to think of Generation X as 'generation lead,'" said Aaron Reuben, a study co-author and assistant professor of clinical neuropsychology at the University of Virginia. "We know they were exposed to it more and we're estimating they have gone on to have higher rates of internalizing conditions like anxiety, depression and symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder...." Researchers linked the lead exposure to an estimated 151 million "excess mental disorders" in the United States over the 75-year period. The estimates should be "considered a floor" because it relies mainly on gas and not exposure from lead in paint and pipes, Reuben said... Those born between 1966 and 1986 generally had higher mental illness levels linked to lead exposure with the rates peaking for those born between 1966 and 1970, the study said. Those rates coincided with the peak use of lead in gas from the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s... The study said the peak lead use coincided with increased demand for psychiatric care and higher rates of juvenile delinquency. Today there's routine blood screenings for high levels of lead, study co-author Reuben says. But in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, "folks were walking around with an average blood lead value that today would trigger clinical follow-up." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Verge Explains Why, After 13 Years, It's Offering a 'Subscription' Option for Its Supporters - "Okay, we're doing this," begins a new announcement at The Verge: Today we're launching a Verge subscription that lets you get rid of a bunch of ads, gets you unlimited access to our top-notch reporting and analysis across the site and our killer premium newsletters, and generally lets you support independent tech journalism in a world of sponsored influencer content. It'll cost $7 / month or $50 / year — and for a limited time, if you sign up for the annual plan, we'll send you an absolutely stunning print edition of our CONTENT GOBLINS series, with very fun new photography and design... A surprising number of you have asked us to launch something like this, and we're happy to deliver. If you don't want to pay, rest assured that big chunks of The Verge will remain free — we're thinking about subscriptions a lot differently than everyone else... If you're a Verge reader, you know we've been covering massive, fundamental changes to how the internet works for years now. Most major social media platforms are openly hostile to links, huge changes to search have led to the death of small websites, and everything is covered in a layer of AI slop and weird scams. The algorithmic media ecosystem is now openly hostile to the kind of rigorous, independent journalism we want to do. A few years ago, we decided the only real way to survive all this was to stand apart and bet on our own website so that we could remain independent of these platforms and their algorithms. We didn't want to write stories to chase Google Search trends or because we thought they'd do well on social media. And we definitely didn't want to compromise our famously strict ethics policy to accept brand endorsement deals from the companies we cover, which almost all of our competitors in the creator economy are forced to do in order to run sustainable businesses... [W]e intend to keep making this thing together for a long, long time. So many of you like The Verge that we've actually gotten a shocking number of notes from people asking how they can pay to support our work. It's no secret that lots of great websites and publications have gone under over the past few years as the open web falls apart, and it's clear that directly supporting the creators you love is a big part of how everyone gets to stay working on the modern internet. At the same time, we didn't want to simply paywall the entire site — it's a tragedy that traditional journalism is retreating behind paywalls while nonsense spreads across platforms for free. The print premium for subscribers is described as a "beautiful / deranged print product" that's drawn from a series of articles "about what Google had done to the web, capped off by a feature about search engine optimization titled 'The People Who Ruined the Internet.'" But it ships with a satirical cover that instead proclaims it as "The Verge Guide to Search Engine Optimization". A tongue-in-check announcement explains: [A] year has passed, and we've had a change of heart. Maybe search engine optimization is actually a good thing. Maybe appeasing the search algorithm is not only a sustainable strategy for building a loyal audience, but also a strategic way to plan and produce content. What are journalists, if not content creators? Anyway, SEO community, consider this our apology. And what better way to say "our bad, your industry is not a cesspool of AI slop but a brilliant vision of what a useful internet could look like" than collecting all the things we've learned in one handy print magazine? Which is why I'm proud to introduce The Verge Guide to Search Engine Optimization: All the Tips, Tricks, Hints, Schemes, and Techniques for Promoting High-Quality Content! Whoops — slip off the cover and the real title appears: "CONTENT GOBLINS" (written in green slime). Again, it's "an anthology of stories about 'content' and the people who 'make' it." In very Verge fashion, we are meeting the moment where the internet has been overrun by AI garbage by publishing a beautifully designed, limited edition print product. (Also, the last time we printed a magazine, it won a very prestigious design award.) Content Goblins collects some of our best stories over the past couple years, capturing the cynical push for the world's great art and journalism to be reduced into units that can be packaged, distributed, and consumed on the internet. Consider Content Goblins as our resistance to that movement. With terrific new art and photography, we're making the case that great reporting is vital and enduring — and worth paying for. This gorgeous, grotesque magazine can be yours if you commit to an annual subscription to The Verge — while supplies last. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

OpenAI Releases 'Smarter, Faster' ChatGPT - Plus $200-a-Month Subscriptions for 'Even-Smarter Mode' - Wednesday OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced "12 Days of OpenAI," promising that "Each weekday, we will have a livestream with a launch or demo..." And sure enough, today he announced the launch of two things: - "o1, the smartest model in the world. Smarter, faster, and more features (e.g. multimodality) than o1-preview. Live in ChatGPT now, coming to API soon." - "ChatGPT Pro. $200/month. Unlimited usage and even-smarter mode for using o1. More benefits to come!" Altman added this update later: For extra clarity: o1 is available in our plus tier, for $20/month. With the new pro tier ($200/month), it can think even harder for the hardest problems. Most users will be very happy with o1 in the plus tier! VentureBeat points out that subscribers "also gain access to GPT-4o, known for its advanced natural language generation capabilities, and the Advanced Voice feature for speech-based interactions." And even for non-subscribers, ChatGPT can now also analyze images, points out VentureBeat, "a hugely helpful feature upgrade as it enables users to upload photos and have the AI chatbot respond to them, giving them detailed plans on how to build a birdhouse entirely from a single candid photo of one, for one fun example." In another, potentially more serious and impressive example, it is now capable of helping design data centers from sketches... o1 represents a significant evolution in reasoning model capabilities, including better handling of complex tasks, image-based reasoning, and enhanced accuracy. Enterprise and Education users will gain access to the model next week... OpenAI's updates also include safety enhancements, with the o1-preview scoring 84 on a rigorous safety test, compared to 22 for its predecessor... To encourage the use of AI in societal-benefit fields, OpenAI has announced the ChatGPT Pro Grant Program. The initiative will initially award 10 grants to leading medical researchers, providing free access to ChatGPT Pro tools. In a video Altman displays graphs showing o1 dramatically outperforms gpt4o on math questions, on competition coding at CodeForces, and on PhD-level science questions. Read more of this story at Slashdot.