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THE GERMANS are an inventive bunch. They came up with the printing press, the car and the X-ray machine, not to mention MP3s and gummy bears. The country remains a big contributor to technological progress, filing more than 16,700 international patent applications in 2024. But, according to a new global ranking of 139 economies published by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), Germany is no longer among the ten most innovative countries in the world. China has displaced it. WIPO uses 78 indicators to assemble its Global Innovation Index. They cover inputs (such as spending on research and development) and...

Every month, over 60,000 people search for terms like “best AI chatbot,” “top AI chatbots,” or “what is the best AI chatbot?” — and the number keeps rising. In many ways, we’re living through AI’s version of the Big Bang. What started as a handful of tools has rapidly expanded into a vast, ever-evolving universe of thousands of AI platforms — each claiming to be the next breakthrough. With so many tools available and countless generic lists floating online, it’s no surprise users feel overwhelmed trying to choose the right AI chatbot. Professionals, students, educators, marketers — people from all...

I don't do anything hinky or illegal on my PC. But is CCleaner good for cleaning up cache? At the moment, I use the "delete history" feature on my browser and the "delete history" feature on "Internet Options." Does CCleaner do anything else?

A woman has been accused of using dating apps to meet men and then burglarize their homes, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Adva Lavie is wanted for a string of burglaries in which she allegedly targeted older men, posing as a romantic companion on virtual dating platforms and social media, according to officials. She is also known to use the aliases Mia Ventura, Shoshana or Shana, according to officials.

Poisoning AI models might be way easier than previously thought if an Anthropic study is anything to go on. Researchers at the US AI firm, working with the UK AI Security Institute, Alan Turing Institute, and other academic institutions, said today that it takes only 250 specially crafted documents to force a generative AI model to spit out gibberish when presented with a certain trigger phrase. For those unfamiliar with AI poisoning, it's an attack that relies on introducing malicious information into AI training datasets that convinces them to return, say, faulty code snippets or exfiltrate sensitive data. The common...

Piper Sandler Companies released the results of its 50th semi-annual Taking Stock With Teens survey on Thursday. "This fall, teens self-reported annual spending dropped to $2,213, which is a 6% decline year-over year and a 1% decline on average in the past 10 years. On a positive note, looking at wallet share for the upper-income teen, clothing grew 1% year-over-year, driven by females, while footwear share held steady after a decline last spring," highlighted Piper Sandler analyst Anna Andreeva. Nike (NYSE:NKE) once again was the top clothing brand for teens, with Hollister (ANF) ranking number two and Brandy Melville a...

The Tyranny of Digital ID Digital ID is a trojan horse for an invasive surveillance state. The UK government recently announced plans to impose digital ID on every resident, raising alarms among citizens across the Western world. Promoted as a crackdown on “illegal working” and a convenient tool to access “vital government services,” the ID will be “mandatory as a means of proving your Right to Work,” officials said, concentrating power in a way that would make the Party in 1984 blush.Unlike a physical ID, a digital version records every use and provides the government with a record of...

Winboat is a tool that now easily let's you run your Windows programs underneath Linux in a way that makes it almost seamless. How do you do this? Let's find out!

Microsoft is closing a popular loophole that allowed users to install Windows 11 without a Microsoft account. The change has appeared in recent Insider builds of Windows 11, indicating it is likely to be included in the production version soon. Microsoft refers to these loopholes as "known mechanisms" and is talking about local commands in this instance. You can learn all about these in our piece for getting Windows 11 installed with a local account, but suffice to say start ms-cxh:localonly is no more. "While these mechanisms were often used to bypass Microsoft account setup, they also inadvertently skip critical...

Observations by 30+ hiring managers and tech recruiters about what’s happening: a flood of inbound applications means more selective hiring, there’s increased demand for product engineers, and moreLast month, we published a deepdive on the tech jobs market based on data that revealed a slow, steady rise in recruitment across Big Tech and startups. There’s also predictably massive AI engineering demand, fewer remote roles, and the growing significance of location, among other things. The job market feels pretty weird right now: hiring managers say it’s hard to fill positions, but software engineers also get fewer responses to their applications. Also...

Recent images purportedly depicting the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS during its closest approach to Mars last week have erupted in controversy online, as many took to social media with theories about what the object’s unusual shape could mean about its nature and origins. The new images obtained last week by NASA’s Perseverance rover appear to show 3I/ATLAS streaking through the Martian night sky as it passed through the field of view of the robotic explorer’s Right Navigation Camera (Navcam) from its position in Jezero Crater. The recent imagery was originally uploaded to NASA’s multimedia page in raw format. Since that time,...

A Michigan man linked to prominent “anti-adult content” software has been charged with several child sex offenses after trying to meet up with a decoy minor for sexual activity. On August 13, 2025, Kent County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Thomas Wideman, stepson of Ron DeHaas, co-founder of Covenant Eyes, a tool used by churches, schools, and families to monitor and filter online adult content. Founded in 2000 with the expressed purpose of shielding his stepsons and family from the dangers of internet, following the death of his first wife and children in a tragic car accident, DeHaas’s Covenant Eyes pioneered...

Children born today are more likely to die as a result of insatiable 'alien' AI than they are to graduate high school, according to new research.It is the grim prediction from one of the country's leading researchers - who says previous estimates about the risks of the developing technology have been 'ridiculously low.'The world's top scientists have already said there is a 25 percent chance AI will destroy humanity.But, Nate Soares told the Daily Mail: 'They are dramatically underestimating the dangers.'In his new book, If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies, he and co-author Eliezer Yudkowsky warn that a human-AI conflict...

I'm looking for recommendations for the (primary) volume size to allocate on a brand new SSD being used for a mildly unique purpose: It will be the 3rd drive in the machine, and will function as the drive most programs (except the OS) will reside on, and also it will be used for "fast" data backup of the primary data drive, which is the 2nd SSD: Drive F. Background and more info. is in my Post #1, below. Please read that too, B4 posting. :-) Thanks in advance, All!

Surrounded by lush forest and built around a historic ship port, Prince Rupert could easily be the picture on a postcard. But this Canadian coastal town is now so dangerous Walmart has closed its local supermarket due to fears for staff safety. The only Walmart within a 144km radius, the budget supermarket is a lifeline for many of the low-income residents in the town, and will be a huge loss for families. Nestled between the Great Bear Rainforest and the Skeena River, the town of 12,000 has become an unlikely breeding ground for crime, drugs and homelessness. Local business owners...

A teen lesbian kiss scene in Netflix’s children’s show, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, has gone viral on social media amid mass cancellations of member subscriptions. “This is from a children’s cartoon on Netflix called Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous,” an X user wrote in a Wednesday post, sharing an image of the gay kiss. “Since when has something like this been considered appropriate for children?!” The still shot of the scene is from the ninth episode of the show’s fifth season. In 2022, Hungary’s national media regulator launched an investigation into Netflix over Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, as the lesbian kiss...

Ever since Combs's downfall amid allegations of sex crimes - which he denied - 50 Cent has been giddily trolling him on social media. July, Combs was acquitted of the most serious charges against him, sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. However he was found guilty of two lesser charges of transportation to engage in prostitution, which he is being sentenced for today. 50 Cent was among the first to speak out, sharing a photo of himself with a huge smile he wrote, 'Diddy beat the Feds that boy a bad man beat the Rico....' As the date crept nearer, 50...

The killer traveled from Indianapolis to Versailles on the night of December 6, 2015 then randomly entered the Tiptons' home as they slept.

LOS ANGELES -- A new actress is taking the spotlight in Hollywood, and it is sparking a debate among actors. That's because this actress isn't real. They're an AI called Tilly Norwood. Actors are speaking out, responding to reports that multiple talent agencies are interested in signing the AI actress. Tilly Norwood might seem like any other aspiring actress. She has an Instagram page showing off her screen tests, alongside candid moments. She even posted a video on Facebook which she says features her first on-camera role. But Tilly Norwood is not a real actress -- she's a character generated...

After four seasons spent luring little kids into watching the animated program, Ada Twist, Scientist, the Netflix Grooming Syndicate decided to drop a gay marriage and same-sex kiss into season four’s eleventh episode, Blue River Wedding. Here’s the clip: This blatant act of grooming was co-produced by Higher Ground Productions, the entertainment company founded by Barry and Michelle Obama in 2018. This is not a show aimed at adults or even teenagers. It is aimed at little kids, and now we know it is aimed at shattering the innocence of little kids by introducing them to deviant lifestyles long before...