Latest News
Last updated 02 Jan, 07:14 AM
BBC News
'I hid from a wall of heat': Eyewitnesses describe escape from Swiss bar inferno - One young man told the BBC he went into the bar to look for his little brother, who he thought was inside.
Chickenpox vaccines for young children start across UK - For the first time, children will be offered vaccination on the NHS against the common infection which, in rare cases, can be very serious.
Travel disruption expected as ice and snow grip UK - The worst of the weather is expected to hit Scotland, with weather warnings in place until Sunday.
The great debate about whether the NHS should use magic mushrooms to treat mental health - Many clinical trials to test the use of psychedelic medicines for conditions such as depression have been underway since 2022 - with surprising results
Trump says health is 'perfect' amid ageing concerns - In an interview about his health, Trump talked about using hand makeup, getting by on little sleep and taking lots of aspirin.
The Register
Defusing space 'scope photobombs and more: Mitigating pollution from satellite RF transmissions - 'What do we need to do better?' El Reg talks to comms boss about the problem Interview Scientists and engineers have been taken aback by the amount of radio interference generated by satellite constellations, and many are calling on standards bodies to improve operator performance.…
Welcome to Wendy's! Before your order can be taken, you must first reset this kiosk - Do you want bork with that? Bork!Bork!Bork! Today's example of bork-in-the-wild shows that Microsoft is not the only game in town when it comes to screens having an IT moment in public. No, there will be no orders on this Firefox-based drive-thru kiosk at Wendy's.…
How Microsoft gave customers what they wanted: An audience with Bill Gates - Well kinda... Your call will be transferred to the next available assistant Microsoft had a special way of dealing with customers demanding to speak to its CEO. One that kept the customer happy without necessarily bothering His Billness.…
Nvidia DMs TSMC: please sir can I have some more? The Chinese are starved for H200s - GPUzilla has reportedly received orders for more than two million units With the sales ban lifted, Chinese tech giants, including ByteDance, are scrambling to secure orders for Nvidia's H200 graphics accelerators while they can. But will there be enough to satisfy demand?…
US Army seeks human AI officers to manage its battle bots - What, weekend warriors from Silicon Valley not good enough? The US Army has been all-in on becoming an AI-powered outfit for some time, and now it's creating a career path for officers to specialize in making its automation dreams come true. …
New Scientist - Home
Rare Saturn-sized rogue planet is first to have its mass measured - Researchers have confirmed the mass of a free-floating planet thanks to a lucky convergence of ground- and space-based telescopes
Chess can be made fairer by rearranging the pieces - Chess960 involves shuffling the pieces at the back of the board, and an analysis suggests doing so can increase the complexity of the game to favour white, black or neither player
World's first subsea desalination facility will start running in 2026 - Flocean, a Norwegian company, is set to open the world’s first commercial-scale subsea desalination plant, an approach that could cut the cost and energy used to make seawater drinkable
2026 Mars mission will set out to solve the mystery of its moons - The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will be launching the Martian Moons eXploration mission next year, which should finally tell us how Mars acquired the moons Phobos and Deimos
Could James and the Giant Peach inspire the future of food? - In the latest in our imagined history of inventions yet to come, Future Chronicles columnist Rowan Hooper reveals how by the 2030s, botanists had worked out how to grow hybridised superplants to help feed the world
Hacker News
Happy Public Domain Day 2026 - Comments
James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies - Comments
Why users cannot create Issues directly - Comments
Real Biological Clock Is You're Going to Die - Comments
A website to destroy all websites - Comments
Slashdot
Australia's Biggest Pension Fund To Cut Global Stocks Allocation on AI Concerns - Australia's largest pension fund is planning to reduce its allocation to global equities this year, amid signs that the AI boom in the US stock market could be running out of steam. Financial Times: John Normand, head of investment strategy at the A$400bn (US$264bn) AustralianSuper, told the Financial Times that not only did valuations of big US tech companies look high relative to history, but the leverage being used to fund AI investment was increasing "very rapidly," as was the pace of fundraising through mergers, venture capital and public listings. "I can see some forces lining up that we are looking for less public equity allocation at some point next year. It's the basic intersection of the maturing AI cycle with a shift towards Fed[eral Reserve] tightening in 2027," Normand said in an interview. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
No Standard iPhone 18 Launch This Year, Reports Suggest - MacRumors: Apple is not expected to release a standard iPhone 18 model this year, according to a growing number of reports that suggest the company is planning a significant change to its long-standing annual iPhone launch cycle. Despite the immense success of the iPhone 17 in 2025, the iPhone 18 is not expected to arrive until the spring of 2027, leaving the iPhone 17 in the lineup as the latest standard model for over 18 months. This would mark the first time Apple skips an entire calendar year without releasing a new generation of its flagship non-Pro iPhone. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
IDC Estimates Apple Shipped Just 45,000 Vision Pros Last Quarter - Apple's Chinese manufacturing partner Luxshare halted production of the Vision Pro headset at the start of 2025, according to market research firm IDC, after the device shipped 390,000 units during its 2024 launch year. The $3,499 headset has also seen its digital advertising budget cut by more than 95% year to date in the US and UK, according to market intelligence group Sensor Tower. IDC expects Apple to ship just 45,000 new units in the fourth quarter of 2025. Apple launched an upgraded M5 version in October featuring a more powerful chip, extended battery life, and a redesigned headband. The company sells the device directly in 13 countries and did not expand availability in 2025. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Some of Your Cells Are Not Genetically Yours - Every human body contains a small population of cells that are not genetically its own -- cells that crossed the placenta during pregnancy and that persist for decades after birth. These "microchimeric" cells, named after the lion-goat-serpent hybrid of Greek mythology, have been found in every organ studied so far, though they are exceedingly rare: one such cell exists for every 10,000 to 1 million of a person's own cells. The cells were first noticed in the late 1800s when pathologist Georg Schmorl described placenta-like "giant cells" in the lungs of people who had died from eclampsia. In 1969, researchers detected Y-chromosome-containing white blood cells in people who would later give birth to boys. For more than two decades, scientists presumed these cells were temporary. That changed in 1993 when geneticist Diana Bianchi found Y-chromosome cells in women who had given birth to sons up to 27 years earlier. The cells appear to have regenerative properties, transforming into blood vessels or skin cells to promote wound healing. They also challenge a central assumption of immunology -- that the immune system classifies cells as either "self" or "non-self" and rejects foreign material. Microchimeric cells should trigger rejection but do not. Higher-than-typical concentrations have been found in people with autoimmune conditions including diabetes, lupus, and scleroderma. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
'The Cult of Costco' - Costco's consistency -- from its $1.50 hot dog and drink combo to its functional shopping carts and satisfied employees -- has produced what The Atlantic calls a "cultlike loyalty" among members at more than 600 locations across the U.S. Its annual membership costs $65. The model traces back to Fedco, a nonprofit wholesale collective for federal employees founded in Los Angeles in the 1940s. Costco's private label Kirkland Signature has become one of the world's largest consumer packaged goods brands while maintaining deliberately understated branding. The company relies on word-of-mouth marketing from satisfied members rather than traditional advertising. Atlantic staff writer Jake Lundberg, who shops at the Granger, Indiana location, describes the stores as spaces of "cooperation, courtesy, and grown-ups mostly acting like grown-ups." Shoppers follow unwritten rules: move along, don't block the way, step aside to check your phone. Checkout lines form orderly queues. The exceptions come near sample stations and before major holidays, when spatial awareness and common courtesy break down. Read more of this story at Slashdot.