MONDAY, 06 JANUARY 2025, 13:05
Former Microsoft designer Sergey Kisselev has shared previously unseen concepts for Windows 11 dynamic wallpapers, intended for educational devices. The animated backgrounds were designed to complement Windows 11’s centered interface but never shipped with the operating system’s 23H2 update as initially planned.
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Members of the Elsevier-published Journal of Human Evolution quit, citing AI production processes introducing errors, high author fees, and concerns over editorial independence.
Nick Clegg, former British Deputy Prime Minister and Meta’s President of Global Affairs, is stepping down after seven years, with longtime policy executive Joel Kaplan set to replace him. Engadget reports: Clegg will be replaced by Joel Kaplan, a longtime policy executive and former White House aide to George W. Bush known for his deep ties to Republican circles in Washington. As Chief Global...
President Vladimir Putin has directed Russia’s government and the country’s biggest bank, Sberbank, to strengthen AI cooperation with China, aiming to overcome Western sanctions and challenge U.S. dominance in AI innovation. Reuters reports: Putin’s instructions were published on the Kremlin’s website on Wednesday, three weeks after he announced that Russia would team up with BRICS partners and...
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Apple has agreed (PDF) to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that its voice assistant Siri routinely recorded private conversations that were then sold to third parties for targeted ads. In the proposed class-action settlement (PDF) — which comes after five years of litigation — Apple admitted to no wrongdoing. Instead, the...
Turo, which investigators say was used to acquire the vehicles involved in the attack in New Orleans and explosion in Las Vegas, was emerging as an alternative car-rental service.
A U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday the Federal Communications Commission did not have legal authority to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules. From a report: The decision is a blow to the outgoing Biden administration that had made restoring the open internet rules a priority. President Joe Biden signed a 2021 executive order encouraging the FCC to reinstate the rules. A three-judge...
Joel Kaplan, who was a former senior adviser to George W. Bush, replaces Nick Clegg, who was a former deputy prime minister of Britain, as Meta’s head of policy.
Somebody Somewhere, Dune: Prophecy, and The Sex Lives of College Girls are just a few of the shows you need to be watching on Max this month.
After nearly two decades of fighting, the battle over regulations that treat broadband providers like utilities came to an end on Thursday.
Conservative council members in Colorado Springs are debating broader psilocybin access, while veterans implore them for treatment
As Colorado becomes the second state to legalize psychedelic therapy this week, a clash is playing out in Colorado Springs, where conservative leaders are restricting the treatment over objections from some of the city’s 90,000 veterans, who’ve become...
Morgan Stanley withdrew from the UN-backed Net-Zero Banking Alliance on Thursday, becoming the fifth major U.S. bank to abandon the climate coalition in recent weeks. The departure follows similar moves by Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo. While maintaining its commitment to net-zero goals and 2030 emissions targets, Morgan Stanley joins a broader retreat from...
The first meteor shower of the year peaks on the night of January 2–3. Here’s everything you need to know to watch it and the many other showers that will appear in 2025.
Scientists have discovered that great whales can live well beyond previously estimated lifespans, according to research published in Science Advances. The study found that southern right whales can survive past 130 years, while their heavily hunted northern counterparts rarely live beyond 47 years. The findings support earlier evidence from Arctic bowhead whales, which can reach 200 years old....
Dr Qurratul-Ain Rehman points to the low absolute risk of birth defects in children born to consanguineous parents in response to Richard Holden’s bill
I find it intriguing that a Conservative former minister, Richard Holden, has called for first-cousin marriage to be banned in the UK. He argues that the practice threatens women’s freedom and leads to birth defects. Medical evidence shows...
Britain’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory has developed a quantum atomic clock that will lose less than one second over billions of years, the Ministry of Defence announced on Thursday. The UK-built device aims to reduce military reliance on GPS technology, which can be disrupted by adversaries. It will be deployable in military operations within five years, supporting navigation...
The U.S. Commerce Department said on Thursday it is considering new rules that would impose restrictions on Chinese drones that would restrict or ban them in the United States citing national security concerns. From a report: The department said it was seeking public comments by March 4 on potential rules to safeguard the supply chain for drones, saying threats from China and Russia “may offer...
Abstract of a paper [PDF] published on National Bureau of Economic Research: Fertility levels have greatly decreased in virtually every nation in the world, but the timing of the decline has differed even among developed countries. In Europe, Asia, and North America, total fertility rates of some nations dipped below the magic replacement figure of 2.1 as early as the 1970s. But in other...
Researchers have unearthed 200 large dinosaur footprints in Oxfordshire, believed to be the biggest site of its kind in the UK. They are from two types of dinosaurs, thought to be the herbivorous cetiosaurus and the carnivorous megalosaurus. The longest trackways are 150 metres in length, and only part of the quarry has been excavated
Trackways of large dinosaur footprints found in Oxfordshire...
Electric vehicles dominated Norway’s new car sales in 2024, capturing 88.9% market share versus 82.4% in 2023, the Norwegian Road Federation said. Tesla led sales, followed by Volkswagen and Toyota, as the Nordic nation approaches its 2025 goal of selling only zero-emission vehicles.
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Thanks to a range of companies now providing eSIMs targeted at users travelling overseas, South Africans can kiss expensive roaming rates goodbye.