Latest News
Last updated 08 Jan, 10:21 AM
BBC News
US immigration agent fatally shoots woman in Minneapolis - Trump says the woman was attempting to run over ICE agents. Local leaders disagree.
Video shows moment shooting happened - A woman in a car was shot and killed by a US immigration officer on a residential street in Minnesota.
Andrew was paid millions for mansion by oligarch linked to bribery scheme - Firm which part-funded Sunninghill Park purchase received "allegedly corrupt" payments, court documents say.
People who come off slimming jabs regain weight four times faster than dieters - Overweight people shed large amounts on jabs but gain 0.8 kg a month on average once off them, study shows.
'We are not for sale': Greenlanders express fear and indignation as Trump eyes territory - Greenlanders tell the BBC they have no interest in becoming American as the White House restates its desire for annexation.
The Register
Ultimate camouflage tech mimics octopus in scientific first - Synthetic cephalopod skin could be used in architecture and computer displays as well as background-matching subterfuge Scientists have developed a synthetic skin capable of mimicking some of the best camouflage skills in nature that could also have applications in soft robotics and advanced displays.…
Logitech macOS mouse mayhem traced to expired dev certificate - Company says it dropped the ball, apologizes for wasting people's time Logitech says an expired developer certificate is to blame after swaths of customers were left infuriated when their mice malfunctioned.…
Cloudflare pours cold water on ‘BGP weirdness preceded US attack on Venezuela’ theory - Suggests rotten routing, not evidence of a cyber-strike before kinetic action Cloudflare has poured cold water on a theory that the USA’s incursion into Venezuela coincided with a cyberattack on telecoms infrastructure.…
AMD threatens to go medieval on Nvidia with Epyc and Instinct: What we know so far - AMD boasts 1000x higher AI perf by 2027 and pulls the lid off Helios compute tray ahead of 2H 2026 launch AMD teased its next-generation of AI accelerators at CES 2026, with CEO Lisa Su boasting the the MI500-series will deliver a 1,000x uplift in performance over its two-year-old MI300X GPUs.…
IBM's AI agent Bob easily duped to run malware, researchers show - Prompt injection lets risky commands slip past guardrails IBM describes its coding agent thus: "Bob is your AI software development partner that understands your intent, repo, and security standards." Unfortunately, Bob doesn't always follow those security standards.…
New Scientist - Home
Exercise may relieve depression as effectively as antidepressants - A comprehensive review confirms the benefits of exercise for treating depression, even if the exact reasons remain unclear
Weight regain seems to occur within 2 years of stopping obesity drugs - Drugs like Ozempic have transformed how we treat obesity, but a review of almost 40 studies shows it doesn't take long for people to regain weight if they come off them
Hunting with poison arrows may have begun 60,000 years ago in Africa - A collection of arrow points excavated in South Africa has provided the oldest direct evidence of hunters deploying plant-based poisons on their weapons, a practice that has continued into modern times in some traditional cultures
Hominin fossils from Morocco may be close ancestors of modern humans - The jawbones and vertebrae of a hominin that lived 773,000 years ago have been found in North Africa and could represent a common ancestor of Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans
Super-low-density worlds reveal how common planetary systems form - Most planetary systems contain worlds larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, and the low-density planets around one young star should help us understand how such systems form
Hacker News
Project Patchouli: Open-source electromagnetic drawing tablet hardware - Comments
A closer look at a BGP anomaly in Venezuela - Comments
The Napoleon Technique: Postponing Things to Increase Productivity - Comments
Kernel bugs hide for 2 years on average. Some hide for 20 - Comments
Open Infrastructure Map - Comments
Slashdot
Rubin Observatory Spots an Asteroid That Spins Fast Enough To Set a Record - Astronomers using the Vera C. Rubin Observatory have discovered a record-setting asteroid, known as 2025 MN45, nearly half a mile wide and spinning once every 1.88 minutes -- the fastest known rotation for an object of its size. "This is now the fastest-spinning asteroid that we know of, larger than 500 meters," said Sarah Greenstreet, University of Washington astronomer and lead author of the study. The findings have been published in the The Astrophysical Journal Letters. GeekWire reports: 2025 MN45 is one of more than 2,100 solar system objects that were detected during the observatory's commissioning phase. Over time, the LSST Camera tracked variations in the light reflected by those objects. Greenstreet and her colleagues analyzed those variations to determine the size, distance, composition and rate of rotation for 76 asteroids, all but one of which are in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. (The other asteroid is a near-Earth object.) The team found 16 "super-fast rotators" spinning at rates ranging between 13 minutes and 2.2 hours per revolution -- plus three "ultra-fast rotators," including 2025 MN45, that make a full revolution in less than five minutes. Greenstreet said 2025 MN45 appears to consist of solid rock, as opposed to the "rubble pile" material that most asteroids are thought to be made of. "We also believe that it's likely a collisionary fragment of a much larger parent body that, early in the solar system's history, was heated enough that the material internal to it melted and differentiated," Greenstreet said. She and her colleagues suggest that the primordial collision blasted 2025 MN45 from the dense core of the parent body and sent it whirling into space. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
How Bright Headlights Escaped Regulation - Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Autoblog: ... the problem is that the federal brightness standards for automotive headlights have not changed for decades. The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108 hasn't had significant updates since 1986, with an addition allowing Adaptive Driving Beam (ADB) headlights coming only in 2022. The NHTSA last investigated (PDF) the issue of headlamp glare in 2003. The current standards include huge loopholes for auto manufacturers to emit as much light as desired, as long as the manufacturer meets the requirements of the other parts of the regulation. LEDs can be made to focus light using lasers, and auto manufacturers use this ability to their advantage. The regulatory standard prohibits excessive light in certain areas by referencing old technologies, but manufacturers design the areas in question to be shaded so that the total light output can still be increased greatly overall. Manufacturers want as much light as possible in order to get a high score for the IIHS headlight safety ratings. [...] Although the U.S. finally approved the ADB technology in 2022, manufacturers are wary of implementing it because of conflicting regulations, with a few exceptions, such as Rivian. To fix this problem, the first step is to update Standard 108 with a cap on the maximum allowable brightness for LED technology. Next, states should begin requiring headlight alignment inspection during vehicle inspections. Finally, NHTSA should enforce a ban against the sale of aftermarket LEDs that exceed the allowed brightness, at least for on-road use. The Soft Lights Foundation has collected over 77,000 signatures calling for federal action to limit headlight brightness. People are frustrated with being temporarily blinded while driving, and it's high time some regulation was put into place. Vehicles have become cleaner and safer through smart regulation; the same just needs to be done with headlights. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Japan's Nuclear Watchdog Halts Plant's Reactor Safety Screening Over Falsified Data - An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Japan's nuclear watchdog said Wednesday it is scrapping the safety screening for two reactors at the Hamaoka nuclear power plant in central Japan, after its operator was found to have fabricated data about earthquake risks. It was a setback to Japan's attempts to accelerate nuclear reactor restarts. Less than a quarter of commercial nuclear reactors are operational in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns, but rising energy costs and pressure to reduce carbon emissions have pushed the government to prioritize nuclear power. Chubu Electric Power Co. had applied for safety screening to resume operations at the No. 3 and 4 reactors at the Hamaoka plant in 2014 and 2015. Two other reactors at the plant are being decommissioned, and a fifth is idle. The plant, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Tokyo, is located on a coastal area known for potential risks from so-called Nankai Trough megaquakes. The Nuclear Regulation Authority said it started an internal investigation last February, after receiving a tip from a whistleblower that the utility had for years provided fabricated data that underestimated potential seismic risks. The regulator suspended the screening for the reactors after it confirmed the falsification and the utility acknowledged the fabrication in mid-December, said Shinsuke Yamanaka, the watchdog's chair. The NRA is also considering inspecting the utility headquarters. [...] The scandal surfaced Monday when Chubu Electric President Kingo Hayashi acknowledged that workers at the utility used inappropriate seismic data with an alleged intention to underestimate seismic risks. He apologized and pledged to establish an independent panel for investigation. The screening, including data that had been approved earlier, would have to start from scratch or possibly be rejected entirely, Yamanaka said. The NRA will decide on the case next week, without waiting for the utility's probe results, he said. "Ensuring safety is the first and foremost responsibility for nuclear plant operators," Yamanaka said. "It is outrageous and it's a serious challenge to safety regulation." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
AI Chip Frenzy To Wallop DRAM Prices With 70% Hike - Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are projected to raise server memory prices by up to 70% in early 2026, according to Korea Economic Daily. "Combined with 50 percent increases in 2025, this could nearly double prices by mid-2026," reports the Register. From the report: The two Korean giants, alongside US-based Micron, dominate global memory production. All three are reallocating advanced manufacturing capacity to high-margin server DRAM and HBM chips for AI infrastructure, squeezing supply for PCs and smartphones. Financial analysts have raised their earnings forecasts for the firms in response, as they look to benefit from the AI infrastructure boom that is driving up prices for everyone else. Taiwan-based market watcher TrendForce reports that conventional DRAM prices already jumped 55-60 percent in a single quarter. Yet despite the focus on server chips, supply of these components continues to be strained too, with supplier inventories falling and shipment growth reliant on wafer output increases, according to TrendForce. As a result, it forecasts that server DRAM prices will jump by more than 60 percent in the first quarter of 2026. Prior to Christmas, analyst IDC noted the "unprecedented" memory chip shortage and warned this would have knock-on effects for both hardware makers and end users that may persist well into 2027. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Google and Character.AI Agree To Settle Lawsuits Over Teen Suicides - Google and Character.AI have agreed to settle multiple lawsuits from families alleging the chatbot encouraged self-harm and suicide among teens. "The settlements would mark the first resolutions in the wave of lawsuits against tech companies whose AI chatbots encouraged teens to hurt or kill themselves," notes Axios. From the report: Families allege that Character.AI's chatbot encouraged their children to cut their arms, suggested murdering their parents, wrote sexually explicit messages and did not discourage suicide, per lawsuits and congressional testimony. "Parties have agreed to a mediated settlement in principle to resolve all claims between them in the above-referenced matter," one document filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida reads. The documents do not contain any specific monetary amounts for the settlements. Pricy settlements could deter companies from continuing to offer chatbot products to kids. But without new laws on the books, don't expect major changes across the industry. Last October, Character.AI said it would bar people under 18 from using its chatbots, in a sweeping move to address concerns over child safety. Read more of this story at Slashdot.