MONDAY, 19 JANUARY 2026, 15:29
DesScorp writes: CNBC reports that new data from the National Student Clearinghouse indicates that enrollment growth in four year degree programs is slowing down, while growth in two year and certification programs is accelerating: Enrollments in undergraduate certificate and associate degree programs both grew by about 2% in fall 2025, while enrollment in bachelor’s degree programs rose by...
Even low levels of widely used agricultural chemicals were linked to accelerated ageing, research suggests
The lifespan of fish appears to be drastically reduced by pesticides, a study has found.
Even low levels of common agricultural pesticides can stunt the long-term lifespan of fish, according to research led by Jason Rohr, a biologist at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
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Over the past decade, US immigration agents have shot and killed more than two dozen people. Not a single agent appears to have faced criminal charges.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft’s library of books is so heavy that it once caused a campus building to sink, according to an unproven legend among employees. Now those physical books, journals, and reports, and many of Microsoft’s digital subscriptions to leading US newspapers, are disappearing in a shift described inside Microsoft as an “AI-powered learning experience.”...
Merge Labs has emerged from stealth with $252 million in funding from OpenAI and others. It aims to use ultrasound to read from and write to the brain.
The Trump administration appears to be planning to leverage the same playbook used in Minnesota to go after other blue states.
$1.6m project drew outrage over ethical questions about withholding vaccines proven to prevent disease
The controversial US-funded study on hepatitis B vaccines among newborns in Guinea-Bissau has been halted, according to Yap Boum, a senior official at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“The study has been cancelled,” Boum told journalists at a press conference...
Many people who stop using weight loss drugs will return to their previous weight within two years, a new review of existing research has found. CNN adds: This rate of weight regain is significantly faster than that seen in those who have lost weight by changing other lifestyle factors, such as diet and exercise, rather than relying on GLP-1 medications, researchers from the University of...
Cowork is a user-friendly version of Anthropic’s Claude Code AI-powered tool that’s built for file management and basic computing tasks. Here’s what it’s like to use it.
Amazon wants a federal judge to reject Saks Global’s bankruptcy financing plan, writing in court papers the beleaguered department store “burned through hundreds of millions of dollars in less than a year” and failed to hold up their agreement. From a report: When Saks acquired Neiman Marcus for $2.7 billion in December 2024, Amazon invested $475 million into the venture on the grounds the...
American buses in cities like New York and San Francisco crawl along at about eight miles per hour — barely faster than a brisk walk — and one surprisingly simple fix could make them faster without requiring new infrastructure or controversial policy changes. The issue, according to a Works in Progress analysis, is that US bus stops sit far too close together. Mean spacing in American cities is...
Apple, which spent years as TSMC’s undisputed top customer and helped the Taiwanese foundry become the semiconductor industry’s most important manufacturer, is now fighting for production capacity as Nvidia’s AI chip orders consume an ever-larger share of the company’s leading-edge wafer supply. TSMC CEO CC Wei visited Cupertino last August to deliver unwelcome news: Apple would face the...
The top executive of the crypto exchange Coinbase scuttled a planned Senate committee vote on a major cryptocurrency bill after voicing his concerns, a sign of the company’s clout.
Grok will no longer allow users to remove clothing from images of real people in jurisdictions where it is illegal.
Wikipedia turns 25 today, and the online encyclopedia is celebrating that with an announcement that it has signed new licensing deals with a slate of major AI companies — Amazon, Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Perplexity and Mistral AI. The deals allow these companies to access Wikipedia content “at a volume and speed designed specifically for their needs.” The Wikimedia Foundation did not disclose...
Nearly three years ago, MultiChoice said its strategy was to transform its video streaming service into its growth engine, a gambit which has spectacularly failed.
Whether you’re a no-frills backpacker or a bag-checking fashionista, there’s a perfect packing cube out there for you.
The State Information Technology Agency has appointed a new managing director to lead it into its next chapter.
Anthropic’s fourth installment of its Economic Index, drawing on an anonymized sample of two million Claude conversations from November 2025, finds that AI is changing how people work rather than whether they work at all. The study tracked usage across the company’s consumer-facing Claude.ai platform and its API, categorizing interactions as either automation (where AI completes tasks entirely)...
The State Information Technology Agency (SITA) has turned a critical page with the announcement of its new Managing Director, Magatho Anthony Mello, commencing 1 April 2026. This appointment concludes an extensive executive search and ushers in a period of strategic stability for the Agency, which has operated under acting leadership for nearly two years. Mello’s […]
White-collar workers stuck in a cycle of layoffs and stagnant wages might want to look past the traditional tech, finance and media job postings to an unexpected source of opportunity: the blue-collar sector, which faces a labor shortage and is seeing rapid transformation through private-equity investment. These jobs are generally less vulnerable to AI, and the earning trajectory can be steep,...