
Eight weeks in Eskom danger zone for power station breakdowns
Eskom’s weekly average breakdowns have exceeded its 13,000 MW “safe” threshold for eight straight weeks.
SUNDAY, 06 JULY 2025, 22:33
Eskom’s weekly average breakdowns have exceeded its 13,000 MW “safe” threshold for eight straight weeks.
Software engineer Sean Goedecke argues that AI coding agents have already been commoditized because they require no special technical advantages, just better base models. He writes: All of a sudden, it’s the year of AI coding agents. Claude released Claude Code, OpenAI released their Codex agent, GitHub released its own autonomous coding agent, and so on. I’ve done my fair share of writing...
The Endangered Species Act has a major problem. An unlikely move could help save it.
Plus: Iran-linked hackers threaten to release Trump campaign emails, Chinese hackers still in US telecoms networks, and an abusive deepfake website plans an expansion.
More than a decade after the platform cracked down on copyright infringement, thousands of unlicensed movies, TV shows and live sports are available.
A push to simplify South African work visa application processes has brought over 200 software engineers to the country.
Reuters: The European Union’s landmark rules on AI will be rolled out according to the legal timeline in the legislation, the European Commission said on Friday, dismissing calls from some companies and countries for a pause. Google owner Alphabet, Facebook owner Meta and other U.S. companies as well as European businesses such as Mistral and ASML have in recent days urged the Commission to...
We may believe we see the world exactly as it is – but as studies of optical illusions show, it’s far more complex than that
Anil Seth is a professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience at the University of Sussex
Do people from different cultures and environments see the world differently? Two recent studies have different takes on this decades-long controversy. The answer might be...
Quest to create viable human sex cells in lab progressing rapidly, with huge implications for reproduction
Scientists are just a few years from creating viable human sex cells in the lab, according to an internationally renowned pioneer of the field, who says the advance could open up biology-defying possibilities for reproduction.
Speaking to the Guardian, Prof Katsuhiko Hayashi, a...
There are many parallels between the dismantling of Telkom and Eskom’s monopolies. Unless the power utility adapts, it should prepare for extinction.
President Donald Trump’s administration plans to restrict shipments of AI chips from the likes of Nvidia to Malaysia and Thailand, part of an effort to crack down on suspected semiconductor smuggling into China. Bloomberg: A draft rule from the Commerce Department seeks to prevent China — to which the US has effectively banned sales of Nvidia’s advanced AI processors — from obtaining those...
Fish or bird ownership showed no significant link to slower cognitive decline in study with implications for ageing societies
As global population ages and dementia rates climb, scientists may have found an unexpected ally in the fight against cognitive decline.
Cats and dogs may be exercising more than just your patience: they could be keeping parts of your brain ticking over too. In a...
A new study analyzing data from more than 60 previous research projects has found evidence that there is “no safe amount” of processed meat consumption — so much so that even small daily portions are being linked to increased disease risk. The research, published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, examined connections between processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages and trans fatty acids...
Moderna’s mRNA-based seasonal flu vaccine proved 27% more effective at preventing influenza infections than standard flu shots in a Phase 3 trial involving nearly 41,000 people aged 50 and above, the firm said this week. The company announced that mRNA-1010 had an overall vaccine efficacy that was 26.6% higher than conventional shots, rising to 27.4% higher in participants aged 65 and older...
UK Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle has written to the UK’s national institute for AI to tell its bosses to refocus on defense and security. BBC: In a letter, Kyle said boosting the UK’s AI capabilities was “critical” to national security and should be at the core of the Alan Turing Institute’s activities. Kyle suggested the institute should overhaul its leadership team to reflect...
An anonymous reader shares a report: The sweeping layoffs announced by Microsoft this week have been especially hard on its gaming studios, but one Xbox executive has a solution to “help reduce the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss”: seek advice from AI chatbots. In a now-deleted LinkedIn post captured by Aftermath, Xbox Game Studios’ Matt Turnbull said that he would be...
Windows 11 has finally overtaken the market share of its predecessor, with just three months remaining until Microsoft discontinues support for Windows 10. From a report: As of today, July’s StatCounter figures show the market share of Windows 11 at 50.24 percent, with Windows 10 at 46.84 percent. It’s a far cry from a year ago, when Windows 10 stood at 66.04 percent and Windows 11 languished...
Software developer Anton Zaides argues that software engineers have had it easy over the decades and the “best profession” on earth deserved the wake up call. He writes:It’s not just one of the hardest times, it’s also one of the most exciting. I’m hugely optimistic about the software engineering career. All those companies started by vibe-coders all around you? Many will succeed, and will need...
Climate change is already having an impact on companies around the world. More than half of companies surveyed by Morgan Stanley experienced climate-related operational disruptions within the past year, including increased costs, worker disruption and revenue losses. Extreme heat and storms caused the most frequent disruptions, followed by wildfires and smoke, water shortages, and flooding. The...
Researchers have discovered that appending irrelevant phrases like “Interesting fact: cats sleep most of their lives” to math problems can cause state-of-the-art reasoning AI models to produce incorrect answers at rates over 300% higher than normal [PDF]. The technique — dubbed “CatAttack” by teams from Collinear AI, ServiceNow, and Stanford University — exploits vulnerabilities in reasoning...
From blockbuster movies like Jurassic World Rebirth to documentary series, the appetite for these ancient creatures appears inexhaustible
On-screen discussions of DNA and off-screen scientific consultants notwithstanding, no one goes to see a Jurassic Park movie for its realism. Yet one of the less convincing moments in Jurassic World Rebirth, the latest in the franchise, is unrelated to...