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An anonymous reader shared this report from NBC News:U.S. life expectancy rose last year, hitting its highest level since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report, released Thursday, found that life expectancy at birth was 78.4 years in 2023. That's a significant rise - nearly a full year - from the life expectancy of 77.5 years in 2022. "The increase we had this year - the 0.9 year - that's unheard of prior to the pandemic," said Ken Kochanek, a statistician at the National Center for Health Statistics who co-authored the report. "Life expectancy in the United States never goes up or down any more than one- or two-tenths," he said. "But then when Covid happened, you had this gigantic drop, and now we have a gigantic drop in Covid. So, you have this gigantic increase in life expectancy." From 2019 to 2021, U.S. life expectancy dropped from 78.8 years to 76.4. Covid deaths fell significantly last year: Whereas Covid was the fourth leading cause of death in 2022, it was the 10th in 2023, according to the new report. Last year, Covid was the underlying or contributing cause of more than 76,000 deaths, according to an August CDC report, compared with more than 350,000 such deaths in 2020. The new findings are based on an analysis of death certificates from all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The results showed that the overall death rate for the U.S. population decreased by 6%. "According to the new report, the top five causes of death in the U.S. last year were heart disease, cancer, unintentional injuries, stroke and chronic lower respiratory diseases. Death rates fell for nine of the top 10 causes in 2023, while the rate of cancer deaths remained fairly unchanged..." The Atlantic shares some other positive statistics, including reports that America's traffic fatalities keep declining, while drug-overdose deaths also dropped 3% between 2022 and 2023 and there was also a double-digit drop in murder rates. "America is suddenly getting healthier," they write. "No one knows why."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Berlin-based T2 Linux developer Rene Rebe is also long-time Slashdot reader ReneR - and popped by with a special announcement for the holidays:The T2 Linux team has unveiled T2 Linux SDE 24.12, codenamed "Sky's the Limit!", delivering a massive update for this highly portable source-based Linux distribution... With 3,280 package updates, 206 new features, and the ability to boot on systems with as little as 512MB RAM, this release further strengthens T2 Linux's position as the ultimate tool for developers working across diverse hardware and embedded systems. Some highlights from Rene's announcement: "The release includes 37 pre-compiled ISOs with Glibc, Musl, and uClibc, supporting 25 CPU architectures like ARM(64), RISCV(64), Loongarch64, SPARC(64), and vintage retro computing platforms such as M68k, Alpha, and even initial Nintendo Wii U support added."" The Cosmic Desktop, a modern Rust-based environment, debuts alongside expanded application support for non-mainstream RISC architectures, now featuring LibreOffice, OpenJDK, and QEMU."And T2sde.org gives this glimpse of the future: "While initially created for the Linux kernel, T2 already has proof-of-concept support for building 'home-brew' pkg for Other OS, including: BSDs, macOS and Haiku. Work on alternative micro kernels, such as L4, Fuchsia, RedoxOS or integrating building 'AOSP' Android is being worked on as well."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"Voyager 1 is currently exploring interstellar space at a distance of 15.5 billion miles (24.9 billion kilometers) away from Earth," writes Gizmodo. And yet a team of amateur astronomers in the Netherlands was able to receive Voyager's signals on a 1950s telescope designed to detect weak, low-frequency emissions from deep space: NASA uses the [Earth-based] Deep Space Network (DSN) to communicate with its spacecraft, but the global array of giant radio antennas is optimized for higher frequency signals. Though NASA's DSN antennas are capable of detecting S-band missives from Voyager - it can also communicate in X-band - the spacecraft's signal can appear to drop due to how far Voyager is from Earth. The Dwingeloo telescope, on the other hand, is designed for observing at lower frequencies than the 8.4 gigahertz telemetry transmitted by Voyager 1, according to the C.A. Muller Radio Astronomy Station... [W]hen Voyager 1 switched to a lower frequency, its messages fell within Dwingeloo's frequency band. Thus, the astronomers took advantage of the spacecraft's communication glitch to listen in on its faint signals to NASA. The astronomers used orbital predictions of Voyager 1's position in space to correct for the Doppler shift in frequency caused by the motion of Earth, as well as the motion of the spacecraft through space. The weak signal was found live, and further analysis later confirmed that it corresponded to the position of Voyager 1.Thankfully, the mission team at NASA turned Voyager 1's X-band transmitter back on in November, and is currently carrying out a few remaining tasks to get the spacecraft back to its regular state. Fortunately, radio telescopes like Dwingeloo can help fill in the gaps while NASA's communications array has trouble reaching its spacecraft. Scientific American shares an interesting perspective on the Voyager probes:we everyday Earthlings may simplistically think of the sun as a compact distant ball of light, in part because our plush atmosphere protects us from our star's worst hazards. But in reality the sun is a roiling mass of plasma and magnetism radiating itself across billions of miles in the form of the solar wind, which is a constant stream of charged plasma that flows off our star. The sun's magnetic field travels with the solar wind and also influences the space between planets. The heliosphere grows and shrinks in response to changes in the sun's activity levels over the course of an 11-year cycle... [Jamie Rankin, a space physicist at Princeton University and deputy project scientist of the Voyager mission] notes, astronomers of all stripes are trapped within that chaotic background in ways that may or may not affect their data and interpretations. "Every one of our measurements to date, until the Voyagers crossed the heliopause, has been filtered through all the different layers of the sun," Rankin says. On their trek to interstellar space, the Voyagers had to cross a set of boundaries: first a termination shock some seven billion or eight billion miles away from the sun, where the solar wind abruptly begins to slow, then the heliopause, where the outward pressure from the solar wind is equaled by the inward pressure of the interstellar medium. Between these two stark borders lies the heliosheath, a region where solar material continues to slow and even reverse direction. The trek through these boundaries took Voyager 1, the faster of the twin probes, nearly eight years; such is the vastness of the scale at play. Beyond the heliopause is interstellar space, which Voyager 1 entered in 2012 and Voyager 2 reached in 2018. It's a very different environment from the one inside our heliosphere - quieter but hardly quiescent. "It's a relic of the environment the solar system was born out of," Rankin says of the interstellar medium. Within it are energetic atomic fragments called galactic cosmic rays, as well as dust expelled by dying stars across the universe's eons, among other ingredient. Earlier this month Wired noted " The secret of the Voyagers lies in their atomic hearts: both are equipped with three radioisotope thermoelectric generators, or RTGs - small power generators that can produce power directly on board. Each RTG contains 24 plutonium-238 oxide spheres with a total mass of 4.5 kilograms..."But as time passes, the plutonium on board is depleted, and so the RTGs produce less and less energy. The Voyagers are therefore slowly dying. Nuclear batteries have a maximum lifespan of 60 years. In order to conserve the probes' remaining energy, the mission team is gradually shutting down the various instruments on the probes that are still active... Four active instruments remain, including a magnetometer as well as other instruments used to study the galactic environment, with its cosmic rays and interstellar magnetic field. But these are in their last years. In the next decade - it's hard to say exactly when - the batteries of both probes will be drained forever.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

On Thursday New Jersey lawmakers passed a resolution "calling on the federal government to conduct a 'rigorous and ongoing' investigation into the drone sightings in the state," reports the Associated Press:Meanwhile, federal and local authorities are warning against pointing lasers at suspected drones, because aircraft pilots are being hit in the eyes more often. Authorities also said they are concerned people might fire weapons at manned aircraft that they have mistaken for drones... White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Monday that the federal government has yet to identify any public safety or national security risks. "There are more than 1 million drones that are lawfully registered with the Federal Aviation Administration here in the United States," Kirby said. "And there are thousands of commercial, hobbyist and law enforcement drones that are lawfully in the sky on any given day. That is the ecosystem that we are dealing with." The federal government has deployed personnel and advanced technology to investigate the reports in New Jersey and other states, and is evaluating each tip reported by citizens, he said. About 100 of the more than 5,000 drone sightings reported to the FBI in recent weeks were deemed credible enough to warrant more investigation, according to a joint statement by the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Defense. Speculation has raged online, with some expressing concerns the drones could be part of a nefarious plot by foreign agents or clandestine operations by the U.S. government. Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said it's unlikely the drones are engaged in intelligence gathering, given how loud and bright they are. He repeated Tuesday that the drones being reported are not being operated by the Department of Defense. Asked whether military contractors might be operating drones in the New Jersey area, Ryder rebuffed the notion, saying there are "no military operations, no military drone or experiment operations in this corridor." Ryder said additional drone-detecting technology was being moved to some military installations, including the Picatinny Arsenal... U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, said he has heard nothing to support the notion that the government is hiding anything. He said a lack of faith in institutions is playing a key part in the saga.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Nature magazine reports that "A study that stoked enthusiasm for the now-disproven idea that a cheap malaria drug can treat COVID-19 has been retracted - more than four-and-a-half years after it was published."Researchers had critiqued the controversial paper many times, raising concerns about its data quality and an unclear ethics-approval process. Its eventual withdrawal, on the grounds of concerns over ethical approval and doubts about the conduct of the research, marks the 28th retraction for co-author Didier Raoult, a French microbiologist, formerly at Marseille's Hospital-University Institute Mediterranean Infection (IHU), who shot to global prominence in the pandemic. French investigations found that he and the IHU had violated ethics-approval protocols in numerous studies, and Raoult has now retired. The paper, which has received almost 3,400 citations according to the Web of Science database, is the highest-cited paper on COVID-19 to be retracted, and the second-most-cited retracted paper of any kind.... Because it contributed so much to the HCQ hype, "the most important unintended effect of this study was to partially side-track and slow down the development of anti-COVID-19 drugs at a time when the need for effective treatments was critical", says Ole Sogaard, an infectious-disease physician at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, who was not involved with the work or its critiques. "The study was clearly hastily conducted and did not adhere to common scientific and ethical standards...." Three of the study's co-authors had asked to have their names removed from the paper, saying they had doubts about its methods, the retraction notice said. Nature includes this quote from a scientific-integrity consultant in San Francisco, California. "This paper should never have been published - or it should have been retracted immediately after its publication." "The report caught the eye of the celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz," the Atlantic reported in April of 2020 (also noting that co-author Raoult "has made news in recent years as a pan-disciplinary provocateur; he has questioned climate change and Darwinian evolution...") And Nature points out that while the study claimed good results for the 20 patients treated with HCQ, six more HCQ-treated people in the study actually dropped out before it was finished. And of those six people, one died, while three more "were transferred to an intensive-care unit." Thanks to Slashdot reader backslashdot for sharing the news.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shared this report from TechCrunch:Microsoft-owned GitHub announced on Wednesday a free version of its popular Copilot code completion/AI pair programming tool, which will also now ship by default with Microsoft's popular VS Code editor. Until now, most developers had to pay a monthly fee, starting at $10 per month, with only verified students, teachers, and open source maintainers getting free access... There are some limitations to the free version, which is geared toward occasional users, not major work on a big project. Developers on the free plan will get access to 2,000 code completions per month, for example, and as a GitHub spokesperson told me, each Copilot code suggestion will count against this limit - not just accepted suggestions. And while GitHub recently added the ability to switch between different foundation models, users on the free plan are limited to Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet and OpenAI's GPT-4o. (The paid plans also include Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro and OpenAI's o1-preview and -mini.) For Copilot Chat, the number of chat messages is limited to 50, but otherwise, there aren't any major limitations to the free service. Developers still get access to all Copilot Extensions and skills. The free Copilot SKU will work in a number of editors, including VS Code, Visual Studio, and JetBrains, as well as on GitHub.com. GitHub's announcement ends with the words "Happy coding!" and calls the service "GitHub Copilot Free." But TechCrunch points out there's already competition from services like Amazon Q Developer, as well as from companies like Tabnine and Qodo (previously known as Codium) - and they typically offer a free tier. But in addition, "With Copilot Free, we are returning to our freemium roots," GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke told TechCrunch, as well as "laying the groundwork for something far greater: AI represents our best path to enabling a GitHub with one billion developers. "There should be no barrier to entry for experiencing the joy of creating software. Now six years after being acquired by Microsoft, it indeed appears GitHub is still GitHub - and we are doing our thing." Or, as GitHub CEO Satya Nadella said in a video posted on LinkedIn, "The joy of coding is back! And we are looking forward to bringing the same experience to so many more people around the world."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"California's population grew this year by nearly a quarter of a million residents," reports the Los Angeles Daily News, "closing in on record-high population levels the Golden State reached before the pandemic, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday." Although "Data showed the state is growing more slowly than the country as a whole and other large states in the South..."The Census Bureau's Vintage 2024 population estimates show California's population on July 1, 2024 was 39,431,000, an increase of 233,000 from the year before, and just 125,000 short of the 2020 high point. For Jeff Bellisario, executive director of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, there are two ways to look at the new data. "There's the optimistic look that in the past year, we have seen the population increase... bigger increases than we have in a decade, so I do think there is some truth to the narrative of folks coming back to California," he said. On the other hand, California is still far behind the population gains made in states like Florida and Texas. "We are still trying to claw back to where we were pre-pandemic," Bellisario said. "It's going to take us a few more years to get to solid population growth numbers." California had the third most new residents, with the population growing by about 0.59%. Florida and Texas saw more new residents, and top the list of states with the largest increases by raw numbers... Overall, the population of the entire country grew by about 0.9%, slightly outpacing California's growth. A graph accompanying the article shows California's population increasing steadily until the pandemic - which produced a sudden drop that the article seems to attribute to pandemic restrictions (including restrictions on entering the country). And then this year there was a sudden spike back to nearly where it was before the pandemic.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Linux Foundation partnered with GitHub and Harvard's Laboratory for Innovation Science to research organization-driven investments in open source software - the how and the why - surveying over 500 organizations around the world. So what are the highlights from the published report?The median responding organization invests $520,600 (2023 USD) of annual value to OSS. Responding organizations annually invest $1.7 billion in open source, which can be extrapolated to estimate that approximately $7.7 billion is invested across the entire open source ecosystem annually. 86% of investment is in the form of contribution labor by employees and contractors working for the funding organization, with the remaining 14% being direct financial contributions. But the ultimate goal of the research was ideas "to improve monitoring and investing in open source" (to "create a more sustainable and impactful open source economy...")In this research, we discovered a few key obstacles that make this kind of data capture challenging... [O]rganizations have blind spots when it comes to the specifics of their contributions. Many respondents knew where they contribute, but only a portion of those could answer how many labor hours went into their OSS contributions or the percentage of budget that went to OSS. Second, the decentralized nature of organizational contributions, without explicit policies or centralized groups that encourage and organize this effort, make reporting even more challenging... [W]e recommend that policies and practices are put in place to encourage employees to self-report their contributions, and do so using their employee email addresses to leave fingerprints on their work. We also suggest that open source work is consolidated under a single banner, such as an Open Source Program Office (OSPO). Finally, we suggest incorporating contribution monitoring into the organization's pipeline. We developed a toolkit to help improve data capture and monitoring.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: With a few keystrokes, anyone can ask an artificial intelligence (AI) program such as ChatGPT to write them a term paper, a rap song, or a play. But don't expect William Shakespeare's originality. A new study finds such output remains derivative -- at least for now. [...] [O]bjectively testing this creativity has been tricky. Scientists have generally taken two tacks. One is to use another computer program to search for signs of plagiarism -- though a lack of plagiarism does not necessarily equal creativity. The other approach is to have humans judge the AI output themselves, rating factors such as fluency and originality. But that's subjective and time intensive. So Ximing Lu, a computer scientist at the University of Washington, and colleagues created a program featuring both objectivity and a bit of nuance. Called DJ Search, it collects pieces of text of a minimum length from whatever the AI outputs and searches for them in large online databases. DJ Search doesn't just look for identical matches; it also scans for strings whose words have similar meanings. To evaluate the meaning of a word or phrase, the program itself relies on a separate AI algorithm that produces a set of numbers called an "embedding," which roughly represents the contexts in which words are typically found. Synonymous words have numerically close embeddings. For example, phrases that swap "anticipation" and "excitement" are considered matches. After removing all matches, the program calculates the ratio of the remaining words to the original document length, which should give an estimate of how much of the AI's output is novel. The program conducts this process for various string lengths (the study uses a minimum of five words) and combines the ratios into one index of linguistic novelty. (The team calls it a "creativity index," but creativity requires both novelty and quality -- random gibberish is novel but not creative.) The researchers compared the linguistic novelty of published novels, poetry, and speeches with works written by recent LLMs. Humans outscored AIs by about 80% in poetry, 100% in novels, and 150% in speeches, the researchers report in a preprint posted on OpenReview and currently under peer review. Although DJ Search was designed for comparing people and machines, it can also be used to compare two or more humanmade works. For example, Suzanne Collins's 2008 novel The Hunger Games scored 35% higher in linguistic originality than Stephenie Meyer's 2005 hit Twilight. (You can try the tool online.)Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Last week, startup Embodied announced it was closing down, and its product, an $800 robot for kids ages 5 to 10, would soon be bricked. Now, in a blog post published on Friday, CEO Paolo Pirjanian shared that Embodied's technical team is working on a way to open-source the robot, ensuring it can continue operating indefinitely. Ars Technica reports: The notice says that after releasing OpenMoxie, Embodied plans to release "all necessary code and documentation" for developers and users. Pirjanian said that an over-the-air (OTA) update is now available for download that will allow previously purchased Moxies to support OpenMoxie. The executive noted that Embodied is still "seeking long-term answers" but claimed that the update is a "vital first step" to "keep the door open" for the robot's continued functionality. At this time, OpenMoxie isn't available and doesn't have a release date. Embodied's wording also seems careful to leave an opening for OpenMoxie to not actually release; although, the company seems optimistic. However, there's also a risk of users failing to update their robots in time and properly. Embodied noted that it won't be able to support users who have trouble with the update or with OpenMoxie post-release. Updating the robot includes connecting to Wi-Fi and leaving it on for at least an hour. "It is extremely important that you update your Moxie with this OTA as soon as possible because once the cloud servers stop working you will not be able to update your robot," the document reads. Embodied hasn't said when exactly its cloud servers still stop working.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Axiom Space has revised its plan for assembling its commercial space station by launching the Payload, Power, and Thermal module first, enabling it to operate as a free-flying platform as early as 2028 -- two years ahead of the original timeline. Space.com reports: NASA awarded Axiom Space a contract in 2020 to attach one or more modules to the International Space Station (ISS), which is set to retire by 2030 at the earliest. The original plan called for Axiom to detach a multi-module group from the ISS, creating a commercial outpost in low Earth orbit that will continue operating after the ISS is gone. But that plan has now been altered. To create its space station, Axiom plans to launch five modules: a payload/power/thermal element, an airlock, a research/manufacturing hub, and a pair of habitat modules. The original plan was for Axiom to launch the Habitat 1 module to the ISS first, followed by the additional elements. The new assembly sequence will see the Payload, Power and Thermal module launch to the ISS first. This module could detach from the station -- and become a free flyer called Axiom Station -- as soon as 2028, according to the company. After that happens, Axiom will continue assembling the outpost, launching the Habitat 1 module to meet up with it. Habitat 1 will be followed by the airlock, the Habitat 2 module, and then the research and manufacturing facility. Angela Hart, a manager for the Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, said: "The updated assembly sequence has been coordinated with NASA to support both NASA and Axiom Space needs and plans for a smooth transition in low Earth orbit."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Malaysia has agreed to resume the search for the wreckage of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, its transport minister said on Friday, more than 10 years after it disappeared in one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries. Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. [...] MH370's last transmission was about 40 minutes after it took off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. The pilots signed off as the plane entered Vietnamese air space over the Gulf of Thailand and soon after its transponder was turned off. "Our responsibility and obligation and commitment is to the next of kin," Transport Minister Anthony Loke told a press conference. "We hope this time will be positive, that the wreckage will be found and give closure to the families." Further reading: Could Sea Explosions Finally Locate the 2014 Crash Site of Flight MH370?Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Five years ago, journalist and sci-fi author Cory Doctorow published a short story that explored the radicalization of individuals denied healthcare coverage. As The Guardian notes in a recent article, the story "might seem eerily similar" to the recent shooting of UnitedHealthcare's CEO. While it appears that the alleged shooter never read the story, Doctorow said: "I feel like the most important thing about that is that it tells you that this is not a unique insight." Doctorow continued: "that the question that I had is a question other people have had." As an activist in favor of liberalizing copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, it's important to note that Doctorow advocates for systemic reform through collective action rather than violence. Here's an excerpt from the The Guardian's article: In Radicalized, one of four novellas comprising a science fiction novel of the same name, Doctorow charts the journey of a man who joins an online forum for fathers whose partners or children have been denied healthcare coverage by their insurers after his wife is diagnosed with breast cancer and denied coverage for an experimental treatment. Slowly, over the course of the story, the men of the forum become radicalized by their grief and begin plotting -- and executing -- murders of health insurance executives and politicians who vote against universal healthcare. In the wake of the December 4 shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, which unleashed a wave of outrage at the U.S. health system, Doctorow's novella has been called prescient. When the American Prospect magazine republished the story last week, it wrote: "It is being republished with permission for reasons that will become clear if you read it." But Doctorow doesn't think he was on to something that no one else in the U.S. understood. [...] In one part of the story, a man whose young daughter died after an insurance company refused to pay for brain surgery bombs the insurer's headquarters. "It's not vengeance. I don't have a vengeful bone in my body. Nothing I do will bring Lisa back, so why would I want revenge? This is a public service. There's another dad just like me," he shares in a video message on the forum. "And right now, that dad is talking to someone at Cigna, or Humana, or BlueCross BlueShield, and the person on the phone is telling that dad that his little girl has. To. Die. Someone in that building made the decision to kill my little girl, and everyone else in that building went along with it. Not one of them is innocent, and not one of them is afraid. They're going to be afraid, after this." "Because they must know in their hearts," he goes on. "Them, their lobbyists, the men in Congress who enabled them. They're parents. They know. Anyone who hurt their precious children, they'd hunt that person down like a dog. The only amazing thing about any of this is that no one has done it yet. I'm going to make a prediction right now, that even though I'm the first, I sure as hell will not be the last. There's more to come."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The rise of AI has rendered traditional CAPTCHA tests increasingly ineffective, as bots can now "[solve] these puzzles in milliseconds using artificial intelligence (AI)," reports The Conversation. "How ironic. The tools designed to prove we're human are now obstructing us more than the machines they're supposed to be keeping at bay." The report warns that the imminent arrival of AI agents -- software programs designed to autonomously interact with websites on our behalf -- will further complicate matters. From the report: Developers are continually coming up with new ways to verify humans. Some systems, like Google's ReCaptcha v3 (introduced in 2018), don't ask you to solve puzzles anymore. Instead, they watch how you interact with a website. Do you move your cursor naturally? Do you type like a person? Humans have subtle, imperfect behaviors that bots still struggle to mimic. Not everyone likes ReCaptcha v3 because it raises privacy issues -- plus the web company needs to assess user scores to determine who is a bot, and the bots can beat the system anyway. There are alternatives that use similar logic, such as "slider" puzzles that ask users to move jigsaw pieces around, but these too can be overcome. Some websites are now turning to biometrics to verify humans, such as fingerprint scans or voice recognition, while face ID is also a possibility. Biometrics are harder for bots to fake, but they come with their own problems -- privacy concerns, expensive tech and limited access for some users, say because they can't afford the relevant smartphone or can't speak because of a disability. The imminent arrival of AI agents will add another layer of complexity. It will mean we increasingly want bots to visit sites and do things on our behalf, so web companies will need to start distinguishing between "good" bots and "bad" bots. This area still needs a lot more consideration, but digital authentication certificates are proposed as one possible solution. In sum, Captcha is no longer the simple, reliable tool it once was. AI has forced us to rethink how we verify people online, and it's only going to get more challenging as these systems get smarter. Whatever becomes the next technological standard, it's going to have to be easy to use for humans, but one step ahead of the bad actors. So the next time you find yourself clicking on blurry traffic lights and getting infuriated, remember you're part of a bigger fight. The future of proving humanity is still being written, and the bots won't be giving up any time soon.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The EU is pushing Apple to make iOS more interoperable with other platforms, requiring features like AirDrop and AirPlay to work seamlessly with Android and third-party devices, while also enabling background app functionality and cross-platform notifications. 9to5Google reports: A new document released (PDF) by the European Commission this week reveals a number of ways the EU wants Apple to change iOS and its features to be more interoperable with other platforms. There are some changes to iOS itself, such as opening up notifications to work on third-party smartwatches as they do with the Apple Watch. Similarly, the EU wants Apple to let iOS apps work in the background as Apple's first-party apps do, as this is a struggle of some apps, especially companion apps for accessories such as smartwatches (other than the Apple Watch, of course). But there are also some iOS features that the EU directly wants Apple to open up to other platforms, including Android. [...] As our sister site 9to5Mac points out, Apple has responded (PDF) to this EU document, prominently criticizing the EU for putting out a mandate that "could expose your private information." Apple's document primarily focuses in on Meta, which the company says has made "more interoperability requests" than anyone else. Apple says that opening AirPlay to Meta would "[create] a new class of privacy and security issues, while giving them data about users homes." The EU is taking consultation on this case until January 9, 2025, and if Apple doesn't comply when the order is eventually put into effect, it could result in heavy fines.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from PCMag: Amazon employees are striking after the online retail giant missed a deadline to begin negotiations for a union contract. Roughly 10,000 employees have gone on strike as of Dec. 19. Workers are forming picket lines in New York City, Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco, and Skokie, IL. Per a press release from the Teamsters, employees at other facilities have authorized strikes as well. Local unions are also putting up picket lines at hundreds of fulfillment centers nationwide, which could cause package delays ahead of the holidays. "If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon's insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it," says Teamsters General President Sean M. O'Brien. "These greedy executives had every chance to show decency and respect for the people who make their obscene profits possible. Instead, they've pushed workers to the limit and now they're paying the price. This strike is on them." The Teamsters say this is "the largest strike against Amazon in US history." Amazon tells CBS News it doesn't expect it to impact its operations; the company employs 1.5 million people in its warehouses and corporate offices. The workers claim that Amazon has engaged in illegal anti-union behavior while failing to provide employees with better pay and better working conditions. "They talk a big game about taking care of their workers, but when it comes down to it, Amazon does not respect us and our right to negotiate for better working conditions and wages," said Gabriel Irizarry, a driver at DIL7 in Skokie, IL. "We can't even afford to pay our bills." For its part, Amazon claims the Teamsters have "continued to intentionally mislead the public" about the situation. An Amazon spokesperson told NBC News: "The truth is that Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union." You can read the Teamster's press release here.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The U.S. Department of Justice has charged Russian-Israeli national, Rostislav Panev, for his alleged role as a developer in the LockBit ransomware group, accused of designing malware and maintaining infrastructure for attacks that extorted over $500 million and caused billions in global damages. CyberScoop reports: The arrest is part of a broader campaign by international law enforcement agencies to dismantle LockBit. In February, a coordinated operation led by the U.K.'s National Crime Agency in cooperation with the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department disrupted LockBit's infrastructure, seizing websites and servers critical to its operations. These efforts significantly curtailed the group's ability to launch further attacks and extort victims. Panev is one of several individuals charged in connection with LockBit. Alongside him, other key figures have been indicted, including Dmitry Khoroshev, alleged to be "LockBitSupp," the group's primary creator and administrator. Khoroshev, still at large, is accused of developing the ransomware and coordinating attacks on an international scale. The State Department has offered a reward of up to $10 million for his capture. Meanwhile, numerous members linked to LockBit remain fugitives, such as Russian nationals Artur Sungatov and Ivan Kondratyev, each facing charges for deploying ransomware against multiple industries globally. Mikhail Matveev, another alleged LockBit affiliate, is also at large, with a $10 million reward for his capture. Matveev was recently charged with computer crimes in Russia. You can read the full criminal complaint against Panev here (PDF).Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Jurors delivered a mixed verdict on Friday, ruling that Qualcomm had properly licensed its central processor chips from Arm. This decision effectively concludes Arm's lawsuit against Qualcomm, which had the potential to disrupt the global smartphone and PC chip markets. The dispute stemmed from Qualcomm's $1.4 billion acquisition of chip startup Nuvia in 2021. Arm claimed Qualcomm breached contract terms by using Nuvia's designs without permission, while Qualcomm maintained its existing agreement covers the acquired technology. Arm demanded Qualcomm destroy the Nuvia designs created before the acquisition. Reuters reports: An eight-person jury in U.S. federal court deadlocked on the question of whether Nuvia, a startup that Qualcomm purchased for $1.4 billion in 2021, breached the terms of its license with Arm. But the jury found that Qualcomm did not breach Nuvia's license with Arm. The jury also found that Qualcomm's chips created using Nuvia technology, which have been central to Qualcomm's push into the personal computer market, are properly licensed under its own agreement with Arm, clearing the way for Qualcomm to continue selling them.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The newest online-only school greenlighted (PDF) by the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools comes with a twist: The academic curriculum will be taught entirely by AI. Charter schools -- independently operated but publicly funded -- typically get greater autonomy compared to traditional public schools when it comes to how subjects are taught. But Unbound Academy's application, which proposes an "AI-driven adaptive learning technology" that "condenses academic instruction into a two-hour window," is a first for the model. (Unbound's founders have been running a similar program at a "high-end private school" in Texas, which appears to be in-person.) Unbound's approach leans on edtech platforms like IXL and Khan Academy, and students engage with "interactive, AI-powered platforms that continuously adjust to their individual learning pace and style." There will be humans, just fewer of them, and maybe not actual accredited teachers: It will adopt a "human-in-the-loop" approach with "skilled guides" monitoring progress who can provide "targeted interventions" and coaching for each student. Academic instruction is whittled down to just two hours. The remainder of the students' day will include "life-skills workshops" covering areas such as critical thinking, creative problem-solving, financial literacy, public speaking, goal setting, and entrepreneurship. The online-only school targets students from fourth to eighth grades.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is suing America's three largest banks, accusing the institutions of failing to protect customers from fraud on Zelle, the payment platform they co-own. From a report: According to the suit, which also targets Early Warning Services LLC, Zelle's official operator, Zelle users have lost more than $870 million over the network's seven-year existence due to these alleged failures. "The nation's largest banks felt threatened by competing payment apps, so they rushed to put out Zelle," said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra in a statement. "By their failing to put in place proper safeguards, Zelle became a gold mine for fraudsters, while often leaving victims to fend for themselves." Among the charges:1. Poor identity verification methods, which have allowed bad actors to quickly create accounts and target Zelle users.2. Allowing repeat offenders to continue to gain access to the platform3. Ignoring and failing to report instances of fraud4. Failing to properly investigate consumer complaints The CFPB's suit seeks to change the platform's operations, as well as obtain a civil money penalty, that would be paid into the CFPB's victims relief fund.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Apple has started pulling its iPhone SE and iPhone 14 models from sale in Switzerland, signaling broader discontinuation across the European Union ahead of new USB-C charging requirements taking effect December 28. The devices, which use Apple's proprietary Lightning port, disappeared from Swiss online stores today. Switzerland, while not an EU member, follows EU market rules. Apple-authorized resellers can continue selling existing stock until depleted. A new USB-C compatible iPhone SE is expected in March.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Dell CEO Michael Dell has acknowledged delays in corporate adoption of AI-enabled PCs but remains confident in their eventual widespread uptake, citing his four decades of industry experience with technology transitions. The PC maker's chief executive told Fortune that while the current refresh cycle is "definitely delayed," adoption is inevitable once sufficient features drive customer demand. Meanwhile, Dell's infrastructure division saw 80% revenue growth last quarter from AI-server sales. The company is supplying servers for xAI's Colossus supercomputer project in Memphis and sees opportunities in "sovereign AI" systems for nations seeking technological independence. "Pick a country ranked by GDP, the [top] 49 other than the U.S., they all need one," Dell said.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe will make its closest approach yet to the Sun on Christmas Eve, flying within 3.8 million miles of the solar surface and entering its atmosphere for the first time. The spacecraft, which travels at speeds up to 430,000 miles per hour, aims to study the origins of solar wind -- the stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun's corona. The probe's heat shield will endure temperatures exceeding 2,500-degree Fahrenheit during the flyby, requiring specialized materials like sapphire crystal tubes and niobium wiring to protect its instruments.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

U.S. retailers are cracking down on free returns as costs spiral out of control, The Atlantic reports. Return rates have more than doubled since 2019, with shoppers expected to send back nearly $900 billion in merchandise this year. Major chains like REI and JCPenney are now charging fees or requiring in-store drop-offs, abandoning years of customer-friendly policies. With each $100 return costing stores up to $30 to process, some retailers have given up entirely -- telling customers to keep cheap items rather than send them back.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

OpenAI has unveiled a new AI model that it says takes longer to solve problems but gets better results, following Google's similar announcement a day earlier. The model, called o3, replaces o1 from September and spends extra time working through questions that need step-by-step reasoning. It scores three times higher than o1 on ARC-AGI, a test measuring how well AI handles complex math and logic problems it hasn't seen before. "This is the beginning of the next phase of AI," CEO Sam Altman said during a livestream Friday. The Microsoft-backed startup is keeping o3 under wraps for now but plans to let outside researchers test it.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

U.S. data center power demand could nearly triple in the next three years, and consume as much as 12% of the country's electricity, as the industry undergoes an AI transformation, according to an unpublished Department of Energy-backed report seen by Reuters. The publication adds: The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report, which is expected to be released on Friday, comes as the U.S. power industry and government agencies attempt to understand how the sudden rise of Big Tech's data-center demand will affect electrical grids, power bills and the climate. By 2028, data-center annual energy use could reach between 74 and 132 gigawatts, or between 6.7% and 12% of total U.S. electricity consumption, according to the Berkeley Lab report. The industry standard-setting report included ranges that depended partly on the availability and demand for a type of AI chip known as GPUs. Currently, data centers make up a little more than 4% of the country's power load. "This really signals to us where the frontier is in terms of growing energy demand in the U.S.," said Avi Shultz, director of the DOE's Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has unveiled stricter criteria for food manufacturers to label their products as "healthy," marking the first major update to the definition in 30 years. The new rule requires products to meet specific thresholds for nutrients while limiting sodium, saturated fat and added sugars. Under the guidelines, foods must contain minimum amounts of nutrient-dense ingredients like fruits, vegetables, or whole grains. Saturated fats cannot exceed 5% of daily recommended value, while sodium is capped at 10%. Manufacturers have until February 2028 to comply with the regulations.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Academic writing has become significantly less readable over the past 80 years, particularly in humanities and social sciences, according to an analysis of 347,000 PhD abstracts by The Economist. Using the Flesch reading-ease test, researchers found that readability scores in humanities and social sciences plunged from 37 in the 1940s to 18 in the 2020s. The decline was observed across all disciplines, with humanities and social sciences becoming as complex as natural sciences by the 1990s. The study, examining abstracts from 1812 to 2023, covered English-language doctoral theses from British universities.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Japanese electronics manufacturer Sanwa Supply has launched a rotating USB-C cable capable of 240W power delivery but sadly USB 2.0 transfer speeds, Tom'sHardware reports. The $16 cable features a 360-degree rotating connector and is available in 1-meter and 1.8-meter lengths, with both USB-C to USB-C and USB-A to USB-C options, the report adds.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Steam users spent only 15% of their total gaming time on new releases in 2024, according to the platform's year-end review, an increase from 9% in 2023 but below 2022's 17%. Legacy titles dominated playtime, with 47% spent on games released in the past seven years and 37% on titles older than eight years. New online games like Helldivers 2 and Black Myth: Wukong helped drive 2024's modest uptick in new game engagement across Steam's library of over 200,000 titles, while established service games like Counter-Strike and Dota 2 maintained their long-standing popularity.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google has reduced its senior management positions by 10% as part of an ongoing efficiency initiative, CEO Sundar Pichai announced during a company-wide meeting earlier this week. The restructuring affected managers, directors, and vice presidents, with some roles eliminated and others converted to non-management positions, a Google spokesperson told BusinessInsider. The move follows Google's January 2023 layoff of 12,000 employees and Pichai's September 2022 goal to improve company efficiency by 20%.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A bipartisan group of senators is calling out the auto industry for its "hypocritical, profit-driven" opposition to national right-to-repair legislation, while also selling customer data to insurance companies and other third-party interests. From a report: In a letter sent to the CEOs of the top automakers, the trio of legislators -- Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Josh Hawley (R-MO) -- urge them to better protect customer privacy, while also dropping their opposition to state and national right-to-repair efforts. "Right-to-repair laws support consumer choice and prevent automakers from using restrictive repair laws to their financial advantage," the senators write. "It is clear that the motivation behind automotive companies' avoidance of complying with right-to-repair laws is not due to a concern for consumer security or privacy, but instead a hypocritical, profit-driven reaction."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Teenagers using Meta's virtual reality headsets to cheat at the popular game Gorilla Tag are unknowingly selling access to their home internet connections to potential cybercriminals, cybersecurity researchers found. The players have been side-loading Big Mama VPN, a free Android app, onto their VR headsets to create lag that makes it easier to win the tag-based game. However, the app simultaneously operates as a residential proxy service, selling access to users' IP addresses on a marketplace frequented by cybercriminals. Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro discovered VR headsets were the third most common devices using Big Mama VPN, after Samsung and Xiaomi devices. The company's proxy services have been promoted on cybercrime forums and were linked to at least one cyberattack, according to research from security firms Trend Micro and Kela.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Chinese TVs, once dismissed as "cheap and low-quality," are making strides in the premium market, overtaking Samsung, the world's top TV manufacturer. From a report: TCL, a leading Chinese TV brand, surpassed Samsung in the 80-inch and larger TV market for the first time in the second quarter. Another Chinese electronics company, Hisense, is closely trailing Samsung in this market. TCL maintained the lead in the 80-inch and larger TV market in the third quarter with a 23% market share( based on shipments), surpassing Samsung Electronics for the second consecutive quarter, according to market research firm Omdia on Dec. 19. Samsung's share fell from 26% in the third quarter of last year to 19% this year. Hisense is also closing in on Samsung, narrowing the market share gap from 11 percentage points to just 1.65 points over the past year. LG Electronics is facing similar challenges, losing its third-place market share position to Hisense last year.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ars Technica's Eric Berger reports: In a wide-ranging interview with a Russian television station, the chief executive of Russia's main space corporation said the country is now planning to participate in the International Space Station project all the way to NASA's desired goal of 2030. "In coordination with our American colleagues, we plan to de-orbit the station sometime around the beginning of 2030," the country's chief space official, Yuri Borisov, said during the interview. "The final scenario will probably be specified after the transition to a new NASA administration." While the documents for such an extension have not been signed, these comments appear to represent a change in tone from Russia. When he first became head of Roscosmos in 2022, Borisov said Russia would leave the station partnership "after" 2024, which was interpreted as shortly thereafter. Later, Russia committed to working with NASA to keep the orbital outpost flying only through 2028. The US space agency has expressed a consistent desire to keep flying the station until 2030, after which point it hopes that private space station operators can provide one or more replacement facilities.Borisov said the aging station, elements of which have now been in space for more than a quarter of a century, are becoming difficult to maintain. "Today our cosmonauts have to spend more time repairing equipment and less and less time conducting experiments," he said. Borisov also discussed Russia's challenges of getting private investment in space-related activities, saying: "In the West, particularly in America, 70 percent of space services are provided by satellite constellations created by private companies. This process has only just begun with us. This is a very risky business for potential investors." "Right now, the dynamic growth of private space is being influenced by the general economic situation (likely referring to Russia's costly war in Ukraine), high inflation and interest rates, which leads to expensive money for private investors. We can hope that this will be a temporary period and more favorable times will come soon."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes an opinion piece from The Guardian, written by Prof Mark Pallen and Dr Aimee Parker (Quadram Institute, Norwich), Prof Nick Loman (University of Birmingham), Prof Alan Walker (University of Aberdeen): Contrary to what is implied in [this article], the weight of expert opinion in medical microbiology rejects the existence of a "brain microbiome" in the sense of a resident microbial community in healthy human brains. While pathogenic microbes -- such as Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease, or fungal pathogens like Cryptococcus neoformans -- can invade the brain and cause neurological symptoms, these are examples of infections, not evidence of a native microbial community. Similarly, cognitive benefits of vaccines can be explained by their role in preventing infections or modulating immune responses and inflammation, rather than any impact on a "brain microbiome." Furthermore, the studies cited in the article have not undergone independent validation, nor do they provide any kind of consistent picture. This mirrors controversies around other supposed microbiomes -- such as that of the placenta -- which have failed to withstand independent scrutiny. Over a decade of research indicates that contamination, typically from laboratory reagents, is the most plausible explanation for such findings, particularly when even supposedly ultrapure water has been shown to harbor DNA signatures and culturable microbes. If diverse microbes are truly abundant in the brain, why have they not been repeatedly and consistently cultured in over a century and a half of medical microbiology? Why have they not been observed in numerous microscopy studies of human brain tissue? Efforts to explore overlooked roles of microbes in neurological conditions are welcome, but they must be grounded in robust and reproducible science -- not speculative discussion of a "brain microbiome." In the article mentioned above, author Amy Fleming discusses the emerging research connecting infections such as Borrelia, Cryptococcus, and herpes viruses to reversible dementia, challenging the long-held belief that the brain is sterile. She highlights the Alzheimer's Pathobiome Initiative, which investigates how brain infections may contribute to diseases like Alzheimer's, with the goal of developing new diagnostic tools and treatments. Vaccines like BCG and zoster have shown protective effects, while good hygiene, oral health, and a healthy lifestyle can help reduce risks.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A study by reinsurer Swiss Re found that Waymo's autonomous vehicles have demonstrated significantly fewer property damage and bodily injury claims compared to human-driven cars, with reductions of up to 92% in some metrics. Engadget reports: Swiss Re analyzed liability claims from collisions covering 25.3 million miles driven by Waymo's autonomous cars. The study also compared Waymo's liability claims to human driver baselines based on data from over 500,000 claims and over 200 billion driving miles. The results found that Waymo Driver "demonstrated better safety performance when compared to human-driver vehicles." The study found cars operated by Alphabet's Waymo Driver resulted in 88 percent fewer property damage claims and 92 percent fewer bodily injury claims. Swiss Re also invented a new metric to compare Waymo Driver against only newer vehicles with advanced safety tech, like driver assistance, automated emergency braking and blind spot warning systems, instead of against the whole corpus of those 200 billion driving miles. In this comparison, Waymo still came out ahead with an 86 percent reduction in property damage claims and a 90 percent reduction on bodily damage claims.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Home Assistant (not to be confused with the Google Assistant on Google Home) has launched the Voice Preview Edition (Voice PE), its first dedicated voice assistant hardware for $59. The device offers a privacy-focused, locally controlled solution that supports over 50 languages and integrates seamlessly with the open-source smart home platform. As The Verge notes, Voice PE supports the wake words "Hey Jarvis" right out of the box. From the report: The Voice PE is a small white box, about the size of your palm, with dual microphones and an audio processor. An internal speaker lets you hear the assistant, but you can also connect a speaker to it via a 3.5 mm headphone jack for better-quality media playback. A colored LED ring on top of the Voice PE indicates when the assistant is listening. It surrounds a rotary dial and a physical button, which is used for setup and to talk to the voice assistant without using the wake word. The button can also be customized to do whatever you want (because this is Home Assistant). A physical mute switch is on the side, and the device is powered by USB-C (charger and cable not included). There's also a Grove port where you can add sensors and other accessories. For those who don't like the idea of always-listening microphones in their home from companies such as Amazon and Google, but who still want the convenience of controlling their home with their voice, the potential here is huge. But it may be a while until Voice PE is ready to replace your Echo or Nest smart speaker. [...] if you want more features, Voice PE can connect to supported AI models, such as ChatGPT or Gemini, to fully replace Assist or use it as a fallback for commands it doesn't understand. But for many smart home users, there will be plenty of value in a simple, inexpensive device that lets you turn your lights on and off, start a timer, and execute other useful commands with your voice without relying on an internet connection.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Google has released what it's calling a new "reasoning" AI model -- but it's in the experimental stages, and from our brief testing, there's certainly room for improvement. The new model, called Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental (a mouthful, to be sure), is available in AI Studio, Google's AI prototyping platform. A model card describes it as "best for multimodal understanding, reasoning, and coding," with the ability to "reason over the most complex problems" in fields such as programming, math, and physics. [...] Built on Google's recently announced Gemini 2.0 Flash model, Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental appears to be similar in design to OpenAI's o1 and other so-called reasoning models. Unlike most AI, reasoning models effectively fact-check themselves, which helps them avoid some of the pitfalls that normally trip up AI models. As a drawback, reasoning models often take longer -- usually seconds to minutes longer -- to arrive at solutions. Given a prompt, Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental pauses before responding, considering a number of related prompts and "explaining" its reasoning along the way. After a while, the model summarizes what it considers to be the most accurate answer.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist living in the UK, has been found guilty of contempt of court for persistently and falsely claiming to be Bitcoin's creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, despite a High Court ruling against his claim. He has been sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years, and faces jail if he continues his assertions. The BBC reports: [...] Wright, who appeared via videolink, refused to disclose where he was, saying only he was in Asia. It means an international arrest warrant would have to be issued if the UK authorities wanted to detain him. Wright's actions were described in court as "legal terrorism" that "put people through personal hell" in his campaign to be recognised as Bitcoin's inventor. The judge, Mr Justice Mellor, said Wright arguments were "legal nonsense" but acknowledged that he was not in the UK and "appears to be well aware of countries with which the UK does not have extradition arrangements".Read more of this story at Slashdot.

SpaceX has partnered with telecommunications company One NZ to offer satellite-to-cell Starlink texting service to customers in New Zealand. It marks the first time a nationwide satellite text messaging service has been powered by Starlink. Engadget reports: Now onto the caveats, and there are a couple of big ones. Starlink texting is incredibly slow when compared to traditional methods. One NZ says that most messages should be sent and received within three minutes during the initial rollout, but admits that timeframe could increase to "10 minutes or longer." It is for this reason that the company continues to urge folks to carry a personal locator beacon when traveling to a remote area. The service is also only supported by four smartphone models, which includes the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and OPPO Find X8 Pro. This list of eligible devices is expected to grow next year. The company also intends to eventually expand the service to include voice calling and data. The satellite service is free for existing One NZ customers on paid-monthly plans, but we don't know the pricing scheme for new customers or for those signed up for other types of contracts. Starlink is working with T-Mobile to do something similar in the U.S. Last month, the FCC approved a license for T-Mobile and SpaceX's Starlink to provide supplemental telecommunications coverage from space.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Hackers aligned with the Chinese government have infiltrated U.S. telecommunications infrastructure so deeply that it allowed the interception of unencrypted communications on a number of people, according to reports that first emerged in October. The operation, dubbed Salt Typhoon, apparently allowed hackers to listen to phone calls and nab text messages, and the penetration has been so extensive they haven't even been booted from the telecom networks yet. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued guidance this week on best practices for protecting "highly targeted individuals," which includes a new warning (PDF) about text messages. "Do not use SMS as a second factor for authentication. SMS messages are not encrypted-a threat actor with access to a telecommunication provider's network who intercepts these messages can read them. SMS MFA is not phishing-resistant and is therefore not strong authentication for accounts of highly targeted individuals," the guidance, which has been posted online, reads. Not every service even allows for multi-factor authentication and sometimes text messages are the only option. But when you have a choice, it's better to use phishing-resistant methods like passkeys or authenticator apps. CISA prefaces its guidance by insisting it's only really speaking about high-value targets. The telecommunications hack mentioned above has been called the "worst hack in our nation's history," according to Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA).Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The publisher of a high-profile, now-corrected study on black plastics has been removed from a critical index of academic journals amid questions about quality criteria, according to a report by Retraction Watch. From a report: On December 16, Clarivate -- a scholarly publication analytics company -- removed the journal Chemosphere from its platform, the Web of Science, which is a key index for academic journals. The indexing platform tracks citations and calculates journal "impact factors," a proxy for relevance in its field. It's a critical metric not only for the journals but for the academic authors of the journal's articles, who use the score in their pursuit of promotions and research funding. To be included in the Web of Science, Clarivate requires journals to follow editorial quality criteria. According to Retraction Watch, Chemosphere has retracted eight articles this month and published 60 expressions of concern since April. In a December 12 news release, Chemosphere acknowledged the quality concerns and laid out steps it will take to improve its editorial process. Those include improvements to article vetting and peer review, along with assurances that articles will be retracted if there's evidence of policy breaches. "We believe that these measures will help us regain the standard of research integrity that has always been so important to us," the news release stated.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft has lauded the success of its efforts to convince customers to use passkeys instead of passwords, without actually quantifying that success. From a report: The software megalith credits passkey adoption to its enrolment user experience, or UX, which owes its unspecified uptake to unavoidable passkey solicitations -- sometimes referred to as "nudges." "We're implementing logic that determines how often to show a nudge so as not to overwhelm users, but we don't let them permanently opt out of passkey invitations," explained Sangeeta Ranjit, group product manager, and Scott Bingham, principal product manager, in a blog post. The corporation's onboarding strategy seems to suit its corporate address: One Microsoft Way. Ranjit and Bingham describe that strategy in a post titled "Convincing a billion users to love passkeys: UX design insights from Microsoft to boost adoption and security." But they don't disclose how many customers love passkeys enough to actually use them.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a monthlong ban on drone flights over a large swath of New Jersey, the first broad prohibition of its kind since the authorities began investigating a spate of sightings last month that set off fear and speculation. From a report: The ban began late on Wednesday and will continue through Jan. 17, according to an F.A.A. alert. The notification cited "special security reasons" for prohibiting flights in airspace near 22 New Jersey communities, including three of the state's largest cities, Camden, Elizabeth and Jersey City. The F.A.A. said it had temporarily restricted drone flights over "critical New Jersey infrastructure" at the request of what it described as federal security partners.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Joe Biden has announced tougher targets on the US's carbon dioxide emissions for the next decade, in a defiant final gesture intended as a "capstone" on his legacy on the climate. From a report: With just weeks to go before Donald Trump enters the White House, the Biden administration is formally filing new plans under the Paris agreement -- the global climate treaty from which Trump has vowed to withdraw. Under the new target, the US would have to cut greenhouse gases by between 61% and 66% by 2035, compared with 2005 levels -- a substantial strengthening of current goals that administration officials said would put the US on the path to net zero carbon by 2050. In a pre-recorded video statement, Biden called his programme of the last four years -- including the Inflation Reduction Act, private-sector investments of $450bn in clean energy and manufacturing, and regulations to improve efficiency and conserve land -- "the boldest climate agenda in American history." This progress would continue, he predicted: "American industry will keep inventing and keep investing. State, local and tribal governments will keep stepping up. And together, we will turn this existential threat into a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform our nation for generations to come."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Writers, publishers, musicians, photographers, movie producers and newspapers have rejected the Labour government's plan to create a copyright exemption to help AI companies train their algorithms. From a report: In a joint statement, bodies representing thousands of creatives dismissed the proposal made by ministers on Tuesday that would allow companies such as Open AI, Google and Meta to train their AI systems on published works unless their owners actively opt out. The Creative Rights in AI Coalition (Crac) said existing copyright laws must be respected and enforced rather than degraded. The coalition includes the British Phonographic Industry, the Independent Society of Musicians, the Motion Picture Association and the Society of Authors as well as Mumsnet, the Guardian, Financial Times, Telegraph, Getty Images, the Daily Mail Group and Newsquest. Their intervention comes a day after the technology and culture minister Chris Bryant told parliament the proposed system, subject to a 10-week consultation, would "improve access to content by AI developers, whilst allowing rights holders to control how their content is used for AI training."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The European Union has issued draft recommendations requiring Apple to make its iOS and iPadOS operating systems more compatible with competitors' devices, setting up a clash over privacy concerns. The proposals would allow third-party smartwatches and headsets to interact more seamlessly with iPhones. Apple has responded [PDF] with warnings about security risks, particularly citing Meta's requests for access to Apple's technology. The Commission seeks industry feedback by January 2025, with final measures expected by March. Non-compliance could trigger EU fines up to 10% of Apple's global annual sales.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Nuclear power is forecast to be the cheapest baseload electricity source in Japan in 2040, highlighting the government's desire to restart the nation's idled reactors. From a report: The cost of constructing and operating a new nuclear power plant for 2040 is estimated at 12.5 yen ($0.08) per kilowatt-hour, according to documents released from a trade ministry panel meeting on Monday. This cost assumes reactors will be used for 40 years at a 70% operational rate. The meeting was held to discuss the so-called levelized cost of electricity for each power asset, the document said. A previous study published in 2021 saw LNG-fired power plants as the cheapest power source in 2030. However, the latest analysis includes a cost to reduce emissions, while fuel prices are also higher. Intermittent renewable sources, like large-scale and residential solar, were priced lower than nuclear for 2040, the most recent report showed. However, when including the total system cost, including deployment of batteries, nuclear is cheaper than solar in some scenarios. Japan is currently in the process of revising its national energy strategy, which will dictate its power mix targets beyond 2030. The government has doubled down on nuclear as a way to curb dependence on pricey fossil fuels. The analysis released Monday also estimated LCOE of ammonia and hydrogen co-fired electricity, as well as pairing carbon capture and storage with LNG and coal power plants -- technologies that the Japanese government is considering for its long-term energy transition. Co-firing with hydrogen boosted the cost of an LNG plant by about 6% for deployment in 2040, while CCS didn't meaningfully change the price.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Congress approved $3 billion Wednesday for a long-languishing project to cull Chinese equipment from networks nationwide over fears they are vulnerable to cyberattacks, underscoring the risk Beijing-sponsored hackers pose to phone and internet networks. From a report: The new funding comes as the Commerce Department reviews whether to ban routers made by the Chinese-owned company TP-Link, which account for more than half of the U.S. retail router market. The actions reflect the heightened attention among Washington policymakers to the threat posed by Chinese state-linked hackers. U.S. officials revealed the "Volt Typhoon" hack last year and in recent months have expressed alarm over the even bigger "Salt Typhoon" hack. In both cases, Chinese government hackers successfully penetrated major U.S. phone networks and critical infrastructure facilities, and U.S. officials said they still have not been able to expel the Salt Typhoon interlopers.Read more of this story at Slashdot.