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Once upon a time, in their startling report titled "Bigger Monsters, Weaker Chains," ACLU analysts Jay Stanley and Barry Steinhardt argued that the US was quickly becoming a full-blown "surveillance society," where advanced technology and crumbling regulation come together to create the kind of world that was previously the domain of dystopian science fiction. "The fact is, there are no longer any technical barriers to the Big Brother regime portrayed by George Orwell," they wrote. That was in 2003. In the two decades since, the tech sector has unleashed a tidal wave of innovations like targeted algorithms, always-on location sharing,...

Google has for years been harnessing the power of its Android smartphones to detect and measure tens of thousands of earthquakes. In a new paper published in the journal Science, researchers from the search giant described how they used motion sensors from its two billion-strong network of phones running Android between the years 2021 and 2024 to detect and alert quakes to users in almost 100 countries around the world. Known as "Android Earthquake Alerts" (AEA), this early warning system has uses the smartphones' accelerometers to detect telltale vibrations as they happen and inform residents of quakes in their areas....

Unbelievable. This was created from text prompts. Unfortunately, the image creators hardly ever share their text prompts.

Researchers studying prehistoric artifacts believe the earliest evidence of humans recording numbers may lie in simple bone markings made up to 20,000 years ago. The study, led by Lloyd Austin Courtenay and published in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, explores how these marks could reveal the origins of numerical thinking. Simple marks, complex meaning The research examines “artificial memory systems,” or AMSs—objects engraved with repeated marks believed to store information outside the human mind. These marks are found on bones, antlers, and sticks dating back to the Upper Paleolithic period. Some artifacts carry hundreds of lines, carefully spaced and organized. Such...

Malware bytes just issued a warning that FR is harboring dangerous software. What gives?

Four Danish engineering students have captured global attention with their groundbreaking 3D-printed drone that can fly through the air and swim underwater, switching between both with ease. The drone has the potential to reshape search-and-rescue missions, as well as ocean research. The innovative machine was built by applied industrial electronics students Andrei Copaci, Pawel Kowalczyk, Krzysztof Sierocki and Mikolaj Dzwigalo at Aalborg University. It became an internet hit through viral videos showing the drone taking off from beside a pool, diving underwater, swimming around and then flying back up into the air without any help from humans. The secret is...

The owners of a popular New Orleans 7th Ward restaurant are speaking on social media after a woman from New York claiming to be an influencer racked up a near $300 bill, refused to pay and left a 2-star Google review. There’s red sauce downstairs, while upstairs in the lounge the acts sometimes go a bit blue. You’re drinking affordable Italian wine with dinn… Diane Kronstad wrote two reviews critiquing Louisiana businesses on Tuesday. One review alleged that a crawfish company's seafood smelled bad after it was shipped. The other was to complain about her experience at Pulcinella, 1300 St....

AI will assess whether an account belongs to an adult or a teen. YouTube is going to start relying on AI to determine whether or not an account belongs to a teen or an adult, and take actions as a result. In a recent blog post, YouTube announced machine learning would "interpret a variety of signals that help us to determine whether a user is over or under 18". If the AI believes the account is being operated by a teen, it will automatically apply age-appropriate protections, including: Disabling personalized advertising Turning on digital wellbeing tools Adding safeguards to recommendations,...

Non-Woke "Political Protest Forks" like XLibre & Redot are thriving. Non-DEl Linux Distributions like Open Mandriva are as well. But Woke projects? Not doing so well.

The sequel to the beloved 1996 comedy, Happy Gilmore 2, premiered on Netflix, arriving nearly two decades after the original film hit theaters. Adam Sandler, known for shaping modern Hollywood comedy with hits like Grown Ups, reprised his iconic role in this follow-up, which streamed directly online instead of being released in cinemas. This revival marked a significant moment for fans and came with a notable financial arrangement for Sandler. Details of Netflix’s Deal with Adam Sandler An exact figure for Adam Sandler’s salary for Happy Gilmore 2 has not been officially disclosed, but it is linked to a larger...

Executive Summary: - The PRC is exporting an integrated system of smart devices, data infrastructure, and governance standards. Through industrial policy, state-backed overproduction, and strategic data asymmetry, Beijing is building a global IoT architecture designed to embed PRC standards, influence, and governance into the connected environments of other countries. - By dominating core components like cellular IoT modules and steering global standards through initiatives like China Standards 2035, Beijing is creating long-term supply chain dependencies and rewriting the rules of digital interoperability. - Devices manufactured by PRC firms often carry embedded risks: unpatched vulnerabilities, mandated government access under China’s Data...

Saturday Night Live could be axed by NBC when its elderly creator and producer Lorne Michaels finally steps down from the money-losing show, an expert predicted. Robert Thompson, who founded the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, shared the gloomy forecast after Stephen Colbert's talk show was canceled by CBS. He thinks NBC may be moved to axe legendary sketch comedy show SNL and Michaels' other shows for the network - The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night With Seth Meyers - when the 80-year-old mogul decides to retire. Speaking days after CNBC revealed...

WinRAR has been such a steadfast part of the Windows experience that its payment model—politely nagging users to buy a license—has become a meme. But after more than 20 years, I've finally found an alternative. What's Wrong with WinRAR? WinRAR is packed with great features, and in the decades I've been using it, I could count on one hand the number of times I've encountered a bug. Unfortunately, it has two things working against it for me. WinRAR's User Interface Is Stuck in the Past To WinRAR's credit, it fully integrates with Windows 11's new(ish) right-click context menu, which is...

Learning Linux can feel intimidating, especially if you’re new to the terminal and unsure where to start. But it doesn’t have to be boring. In fact, it can be downright fun. Here are some seriously entertaining, interactive games designed to help you learn Linux while playing.1. Cmdchallengecmdchallenge is a simple yet clever web-based game that throws single-line Linux challenges at you and expects you to solve them using only command-line instructions. You don’t need to set up any virtual machine or system; you can quickly test your Linux knowledge right in your browser.Unlike traditional learning methods that focus on memorizing...

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Thursday that TikTok will go dark for Americans unless China agrees to give the U.S. more control over the popular short-form video app. "We've made the decision. You can't have Chinese control and have something on 100 million American phones," Lutnick told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" on Thursday. TikTok's future in the U.S. has been uncertain since 2024, when Congress passed a bill that would ban the platform unless its Chinese owner, ByteDance, divested from it. Lawmakers had grown concerned that the Chinese government could access sensitive data from American users or manipulate content...

When I was a kid in the 1980s, my parents sent me to a Waldorf school in England. At the time, the school discouraged parents from allowing their kids to watch too much TV, instead telling them to emphasize reading, hands-on learning and outdoor play. I chafed at the stricture then. But perhaps they were on to something: Today I don’t watch much TV and I still read a lot. Since my school days, however, a far more insidious and enticing form of tech has taken hold: the internet, especially via smartphones. These days I know I have to put...

A team of engineers has unveiled a revolutionary mini-spectrometer that can fit on a fingertip and operate with low voltage, scanning light from UV to near-infrared in under a millisecond. This game-changing device replaces bulky traditional spectrometers and could soon be embedded in smartphones, unlocking powerful tools for material analysis, biomedical diagnostics, and more—right in your pocket. Its tiny photodetector shifts light sensitivity with simple voltage changes, offering speed and precision in a package smaller than a pixel. Breakthrough in Compact Spectrometry Researchers have developed a groundbreaking spectrometer that is significantly smaller than existing models, yet still capable of precisely...

Arizona police arrested a 21-year-old TikToker known for his prank videos Wednesday after he allegedly targeted several well-known chains in Tempe. Heston Cobb, who uses the name “Heston James” on his social media channels, faces one count of burglary, two counts of criminal impersonation, five counts of disorderly conduct and five counts of criminal trespass. Cobb is accused of orchestrating pranks on Pep Boys, Hyland Auto Repair, Big Brand Tire & Service, Jiffy Lube and Chipotle locations between March and July. Police began investigating after local businesses complained “of a group of men coming into their store dressed as employees,”...

A humanoid robot developed by South Korea’s nuclear research institute was able to accurately toss a water bottle into a yellow barrel from across the room, marking a significant advancement in disaster response robotics. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute published brief video footage showing its ARMstrong Dex robot pitching the 500-milliliter bottle about 10 feet underhanded with its mechanical arm into the barrel. This test was more than just a clever stunt. It showed that the robot had key skills needed in an emergency. In disaster zones where roads are blocked or too dangerous for people to reach, being...

China’s unexpected advances in artificial intelligence in recent months have top U.S. researchers baffled. DeepSeek, seen as a cost-effective AI breakthrough for China, was a wake-up call for U.S. industry technologists, but many appear to have hit the snooze button. DeepSeek’s rapid development of a model matching American frontier AI companies’ outputs for seemingly lower costs caught many national security officials and researchers off guard this year.OpenAI’s Katrina Mulligan, who is working to foster closer ties between her company and military and intelligence officials, said DeepSeek stunned government and industry sources alike.Ms. Mulligan told an AI conference in June that...