China just carried out its second reusable launch attempt in three weeks by Stephen Clark on 2025-12-23 21:22 (#72C8J) The launch laid "an important foundation for subsequent launches and reliable recovery."
Leaked Avengers: Doomsday teaser is now public by Jennifer Ouellette on 2025-12-23 19:45 (#72C42) It's purportedly the first of four planned teasers, one per week, showing before Avatar: Fire and Ash.
FCC’s import ban on the best new drones starts today by Scharon Harding on 2025-12-23 17:29 (#72C1Q) US drone makers are happy-US drone hobbyists, not so much.
OpenAI’s child exploitation reports increased sharply this year by Maddy Varner, WIRED.com on 2025-12-23 17:02 (#72C1R) Incident reports spiked during the first six months of 2025.
“Yo what?” LimeWire re-emerges in online rush to share pulled “60 Minutes” segment by Ashley Belanger on 2025-12-23 16:18 (#72BYX) Redditor jokes LimeWire is now a "champion against the darkness."
F1’s new engines are causing consternation over compression ratios by Jonathan M. Gitlin on 2025-12-23 15:25 (#72BYY) A loophole in the rules might have given Mercedes and Red Bull a big advantage.
The Splay is a subpar monitor but an exciting portable projector by Scharon Harding on 2025-12-23 12:30 (#72BTJ) Splay can be a monitor and takes a lot of the stress out of projectors, too.
In a surprise announcement, Tory Bruno is out as CEO of United Launch Alliance by Stephen Clark on 2025-12-22 23:51 (#72BJH) "It has been a great privilege to lead ULA through its transformation and to bring Vulcan into service."
Call of Duty co-creator and Battlefield lead Vince Zampella dies in car crash by Samuel Axon on 2025-12-22 21:35 (#72BJJ) He had worked on Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, Titanfall, and Battlefield.
Safety panel says NASA should have taken Starliner incident more seriously by Stephen Clark on 2025-12-22 21:11 (#72BJK) "This particular anomaly deserves to be right up front and center for quite some time."
World’s largest shadow library made a 300TB copy of Spotify’s most streamed songs by Ashley Belanger on 2025-12-22 19:34 (#72BJM) Spotify is reportedly investigating how much music Anna's Archive scraped.
US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified by John Timmer on 2025-12-22 18:29 (#72BJN) Projects with hardware in the water stopped due to Department of Defense fears.
Odyssey trailer brings the myth to vivid life by Jennifer Ouellette on 2025-12-22 17:43 (#72BJP) "After years of war, no one could stand between my men and home. Not even me."
Apple hit with $115M fine for “extremely burdensome” App Store privacy policy by Ashley Belanger on 2025-12-22 16:29 (#72BJQ) Apple can't force app makers to get consent twice to track user data, Italian regulator says.
NASA rewraps Boeing Starliner Astrovan II for Artemis II ride to launch pad by Robert Pearlman on 2025-12-22 16:20 (#72BJR) Moon-bound astronauts rehearse their launch-day activities with a repurposed ride.
How Europe’s new carbon tax on imported goods will change global trade by Simona Sagone, The Conversation on 2025-12-20 12:15 (#72A08) The new regulation arrives on New Year's Day.
Google lobs lawsuit at search result scraping firm SerpApi by Ryan Whitwam on 2025-12-19 22:21 (#729SQ) Google says the lawsuit is its last resort.
The evolution of expendability: Why some ants traded armor for numbers by Jacek Krywko on 2025-12-19 22:05 (#729SR) Ants with lots of workers tend to put less energy into making them armored.
Switch 2 pub backs off Game Key Cards after leaking lower-cost cartridge options by Kyle Orland on 2025-12-19 21:30 (#729SS) Inin suggests new low-cost options allowed it to "recalculate production" for full cartridge.
LG TVs’ unremovable Copilot shortcut is the least of smart TVs’ AI problems by Scharon Harding on 2025-12-19 21:18 (#729ST) LG says it'll let people delete the Copilot icon. But TV chatbots aren't going away.
Riot Games is making an anti-cheat change that could be rough on older PCs by Andrew Cunningham on 2025-12-19 20:27 (#729R9) BIOS checks will only affect a limited subset of Valorant players for now.
Not too big, not too expensive: The Chevrolet Equinox EV by Jonathan M. Gitlin on 2025-12-19 20:09 (#729RA) You get quite a lot of EV for the Equinox's sub-$35,000 starting price.
Trump’s energy secretary orders a Washington state coal plant to remain open by Blaine Harden, Inside Climate News on 2025-12-19 18:29 (#729NR) Chris Wright declared an energy emergency" in the Pacific Northwest.
Instacart agrees to refund subscribers $60 million in FTC settlement by Ashley Belanger on 2025-12-19 18:10 (#729NS) The grocery app will also stop hiding refund options and obscuring delivery costs.
Strava puts popular “Year in Sport” recap behind an $80 paywall by Cyrus Farivar on 2025-12-19 17:43 (#729NT) Strava's most viral feature is suddenly locked away.
We asked four AI coding agents to rebuild Minesweeper—the results were explosive by Kyle Orland and Benj Edwards on 2025-12-19 17:29 (#729NV) How do four modern LLMs do at re-creating a simple Windows gaming classic?
Russia is about to do the most Russia thing ever with its next space station by Eric Berger on 2025-12-19 16:04 (#729KB) "Russia, meanwhile, will be left to carry on the legacy of the ISS, with all its problems."
Rocket Report: Russia pledges quick fix for Soyuz launch pad; Ariane 6 aims high by Stephen Clark on 2025-12-19 15:30 (#729GF) South Korean rocket startup Innospace is poised to debut a new nano-launcher.
ByteDance confirms TikTok will be controlled by US owners by Ashley Belanger on 2025-12-19 15:22 (#729GG) Closing TikTok deal avoids 2026 ban, but app may be buggy, 100% MAGA."
Two space startups prove you don’t need to break the bank to rendezvous in space by Eric Berger on 2025-12-19 15:02 (#729GH) "We had to push the envelope a little bit here."
These are the flying discs the government wants you to know about by Stephen Clark on 2025-12-19 03:18 (#7294A) DiskSat's design offers "a power-to-weight ratio unmatched by traditional aluminum satellites."
Parasites plagued Roman soldiers at Hadrian’s Wall by Jennifer Ouellette on 2025-12-19 00:00 (#72934) They were infected by roundworm, whipworm, and microscopic protozoans called Giardia duodenalis.
Trump commits to Moon landing by 2028, followed by a lunar outpost two years later by Eric Berger on 2025-12-18 23:05 (#72924) Also, the Trump administration wants to put some nuclear power reactors there, too.
YouTube bans two popular channels that created fake AI movie trailers by Ryan Whitwam on 2025-12-18 22:39 (#72925) Google loves AI content, except when it doesn't.
Peacock showing ads upon launch opens the door for more disruptive streaming ads by Scharon Harding on 2025-12-18 22:18 (#72926) Subscribers will start seeing ads when selecting a user next year.
Reminder: Donate to win swag in our annual Charity Drive sweepstakes by Kyle Orland on 2025-12-18 21:35 (#72906) Help increase our charity haul of nearly $18,000 in just over a week.
RAM and SSD prices are still climbing—here’s our best advice for PC builders by Andrew Cunningham on 2025-12-18 21:31 (#72907) I would avoid building a PC right now, but if you can't, here's our best advice.
School security AI flagged clarinet as a gun. Exec says it wasn’t an error. by Ashley Belanger on 2025-12-18 21:04 (#728XH) Human review didn't stop AI from triggering lockdown at panicked middle school.
LLMs’ impact on science: Booming publications, stagnating quality by John Timmer on 2025-12-18 20:54 (#728XJ) Once researchers turn to LLMs, paper counts go up, quality does not.
Neural DSP models John Mayer’s entire amp and effects rig—and it sounds great by Nate Anderson on 2025-12-18 19:27 (#728V0) Mayer gets the "Archetype" treatment.
NASA will soon find out if the Perseverance rover can really persevere on Mars by Stephen Clark on 2025-12-18 18:12 (#728V1) Engineers at JPL are certifying the Perseverance rover to drive up to 100 kilometers.
For the lazy techie: These are Ars staff’s last-minute holiday gift picks by Samuel Axon on 2025-12-18 17:55 (#728V2) Two wireless mice, two external hard drives, and a partridge in a pear tree.
Does swearing make you stronger? Science says yes. by Jennifer Ouellette on 2025-12-18 14:46 (#728MQ) "A calorie-neutral, drug-free, low-cost, readily available tool for when we need a boost in performance."
Formula 1 is deploying new jargon for 2026 by Jonathan M. Gitlin on 2025-12-18 13:52 (#728MR) Forget DRS, now it's all about corner mode, straight mode, and overtake mode.
The inside story of SpaceX’s historic rocket landing that changed launch forever by Eric Berger on 2025-12-18 12:00 (#728HQ) "It's hard to describe how epic this comeback was after our first Falcon 9 launch failure."
NASA finally—and we really do mean it this time—has a full-time leader by Eric Berger on 2025-12-18 00:19 (#72872) A long and winding road to reach NASA's headquarters in Washington, DC.
Physicists 3D-printed a Christmas tree of ice by Jennifer Ouellette on 2025-12-17 22:46 (#72860) New method uses no freezing technology or refrigeration equipment-just water and a vacuum.
OpenAI’s new ChatGPT image generator makes faking photos easy by Benj Edwards on 2025-12-17 22:22 (#72861) New GPT Image 1.5 allows more detailed conversational image editing, for better or worse.
Man sues cops who jailed him for 37 days for trolling a Charlie Kirk vigil by Ashley Belanger on 2025-12-17 20:56 (#7283X) Cops may be fined for jailing a man over his Facebook posts.
FCC chair scrubs website after learning it called FCC an “independent agency” by Jon Brodkin on 2025-12-17 20:46 (#7280V) Meanwhile, Ted Cruz wants to restrict FCC's power to intimidate broadcasters.