Texas Grid Flags Risks As Data Centers, Crypto Sites Fail Voltage Tests
Reuters reports:
Several large data centers and crypto facilities planning to connect to the Texas power grid ahead of peak summer demand have failed key reliability tests, raising the risk of power outages just as electricity use hits its seasonal high, according to the state grid operator… Unlike traditional industrial custom … ⌘ Read more

Police Sued After Imprisoning Innocent Man Placed Near Violent Crime By Flock License Plate Reader
“When Hugo Parra was arrested last year on felony charges, his pleas of innocence fell on deaf ears,” reports the Times of San Diego:

San Diego police had a description of the Alfa Romeo car he was riding in [but no license plate number] and a witness who identified him during … ⌘ Read more

Prada Unveils ‘Liquid Cooling’ Inner-Layer Garment for NASA’s Moon Astronauts with Knitted-In Ventilation Tubes
Italian fashion house Prada “unveiled on Sunday the inner-layer garment set to be worn by NASA astronauts heading to the moon,” reports Reuters.

“The body-hugging suit, created in collaboration with Houston-based space infrastructure developer Axiom Spa … ⌘ Read more

Black Market Tinkerers on Facebook Marketplace Offer to Hide ‘Recording Lights’ on Meta Smartglasses
People are disabling the “recording light” on Meta’s Ray-Ban smartglasses — “by my count, thousands of people,” says tech journalist Joanna Stern in a new video report:

STERN: “They’re hiring people on Facebook Marketplace to drill out the light for as much as $100. According t … ⌘ Read more

New Fortune 500 Rankings: Texas Overtakes California, But Amazon is #1, Beating Walmart
“Texas has dethroned California as the state with the most Fortune 500 companies,” reports the Los Angeles Times:

The Fortune 500 list ranks the largest U.S. companies by revenue. This year, 57 of the top companies are headquartered in Texas, compared with California’s 56. It’s a reversal from two years ago … ⌘ Read more

The Gamer-Rights Group Fighting to Make the Industry Stop Killing Games (Servers)
“Can a company take away something you’ve already paid for?” asks the BBC. “In the world of online video games, some already do.”

Publishers can decide to switch off a game’s servers, often leaving it effectively unplayable. Stop Killing Games, a growing consumer rights campaign started by American YouTuber Ross S … ⌘ Read more

Winners Announced in 2026’s ‘International Obfuscated C Code Competition’
Yesterday 2026’s International Obfuscated C Code Contest concluded, with 22 new winners announced in a special three-hour livestreamed ceremony! Started 42 years ago, it’s been described as the internet’s longest-running contest, with entrants concocting convoluted programs glorying in the C programming language’s subtleties, … ⌘ Read more

James Bond Videogame ‘007 First Light’ Sells 2.2M Copies, Earns $150M
The new James Bond-themed videogame 007 First Light had a budget of 1.3 billion Danish krone — a little more than USD $202 million, reports IGN, citing a report from Denmark’s public service broadcaster. “Denmark’s TV 2 said that makes 007 First Light the most expensive entertainment product in the country’s history” — and the game “still ha … ⌘ Read more

After Empty Promises, Will String Theory Find New Uses?
Science magazine reports:

For decades, string theory promised a “theory of everything” that described all particles and forces as tiny vibrating strings. Physicists hoped it could also solve one of the field’s deepest problems: reconciling quantum mechanics with gravity. But as string theory grew increasingly elaborate — and experimentally unreachable — many phy … ⌘ Read more

Reddit Ads Impersonate BBC and The Guardian to Push Fake AI Investment Schemes
A “growing wave” of Reddit’s “promoted posts” are sending U.S. and European audiences to money-stealing scams that impersonate major news organizations including the BBC, the Financial Times, and The Guardian, according to new findings from Bitdefender Labs.

“Domains are short-lived and rapidly rotated to evade detecti … ⌘ Read more

Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders And Sam Altman Are All Talking About Public Ownership In AI
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders announced a plan for the public to take a 50% ownership stake in AI companies, remembers the Associated Press.

And then OpenAI’s Sam Altman “told Sanders that he, too, wants the public to have equity in AI companies.”

Though the CEO said he couldn’t support Sanders’ thr … ⌘ Read more

‘Steve Jobs In Exile’ Remembers the Birth of the Web and ‘Making Unix Taste Sweet’
Ars Technica shares some anecdotes from Steve Jobs in Exile, a new book released last month:

[Author Geoffrey] Cain reminds us, in stunning detail, that Jobs’ “exile” era at NeXT was not only critical to his evolution as a man and an entrepreneur, but that it mattered for the rest of us, too. The technological … ⌘ Read more

Scientists Edited Human Embryo Genes. But Questions Remain
“A DNA-editing feat involving editing the genes of early stage embryos was announced this week,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

They describe the feat as “a far cry from designer babies, but nevertheless a step in that direction.”

Dieter Egli, an associate professor of developmental cell biology at Columbia University and his co-authors, including Nath … ⌘ Read more

Failing CS Grades Soar At UC Berkeley As Professors See Greater AI Usage
The University of California at Berkeley discovered the percentage of failing grades in multiple CS classes this spring “is significantly higher than past semesters,” reports the campus’s student newspaper.

“Instructors point to students’ increased reliance on AI, lack of mathematical preparedness and understaffing as poten … ⌘ Read more

Cheaper EVs Sales are Increasing
Sales have increased for Hyundai’s under-$35,000 IONIQ 5, totalling 18,395 for the first five months of 2026, reports Electrek, “up 16% from the same period last year.”

But meanwhile BYD’s overseas sales surpassed 160,000 for the first time last month, “up 80% from May 2025 and 19% from the previous record of 135,098 set in April.”

Through the first five months of 2026, BYD sold 616,263 vehicles overseas. I … ⌘ Read more

EU’s Tech Sovereignty Package Includes 29 Pages on Open Source, Says Open Source Initiative
Friday the Open Source Initiative welcomed the EU’s new tech sovereignty package, noting that “over a third of the 29-page document is devoted to Open Source.”

The nonprofit OSI — maintainers of the Open Source definition — submitted their official feedback in February, and notes that “many” of … ⌘ Read more

Hospital Ordered to Pay $13M Over 2022 Death of Star Trek’s Nichelle Nichols
The Root reports:

A New Mexico jury has found the Gila Regional Medical Center negligent in the death of Nichelle Nichols, who famously played Lieutenant Nyota Uhura on the hit television series “Star Trek.”

According to KRQE News 13, Nichols’ family filed a lawsuit against the hospital last year following her 202 … ⌘ Read more

Ladybird Browser Stops Accepting Public Pull Requests
The Ladybird browser isn’t opposed to AI coding tools, but it’s just brought a new change to their code-contributing policies.

February 23: “Ladybird adopts Rust, with help from AI.”
I used Claude Code and Codex for the translation. This was human-directed, not autonomous code generation. I decided what to port, in what order, and what the Rust code should look like. … ⌘ Read more

New Power Banks Released By BMX With Safer Semi-Solid-State Batteries
From Android Authority:

Singapore-based BMX has announced that its SolidSafe magnetic power bank lineup, first showcased at CES 2026, is now available for purchase through its website and Amazon US, with prices starting at $59. What sets these power banks apart is their use of semi-solid-state batteries. Traditional lithium-ion and … ⌘ Read more

Teen Social Media Bans Risk Strengthening Big Tech’s Dominance, Warns Bluesky Exec
Bluesky’s chief operating officer believes teen social media bans “risk entrenching Big Tech’s dominance,” reports CNBC:

Rose Wang, Bluesky’s chief operating officer, told CNBC on the sidelines of SXSW in London on Wednesday that the smaller open-source platform isn’t opposed to regulation but that smaller playe … ⌘ Read more

Early Research Suggests a Path to Predict and Prevent Lung Cancer
Scientists “have made a discovery that may help prevent some people from developing lung cancer,” reports the New York Times, noting that lung cancer “kills more people worldwide than any other cancer.”

A team of more than 80 researchers working across four continents have identified a set of proteins in the blood that accurately predict lu … ⌘ Read more

Criticisms Rise Before Vote on America’s Cryptocurrency ‘Clarity Act’
An upcoming vote in a few weeks on America’s cryptocurrency “Clarity Act” is “rattling Wall Street and consumer advocates,” reports CNN, with its proposal to regulate the bulk of crypto markets through America’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission. “It allows crypto companies to operate, at long last, in compliance with U.S. rules, rather … ⌘ Read more

2027’s ‘Tomb Raider’ Remake: Unreal Engine 5 and AI-Assisted Assets ‘Refined’ By Humans
An official trailer dropped this week for Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis. It’s “a full-blown remake of the original 1996 Tomb Raider game,” reports Kotaku, “rebuilt from the ground up using Unreal Engine 5.” Developed by Flying Wild Hog (with assistance/guidance from longtime Tomb Raider studio Crystal Dy … ⌘ Read more

Utah Residents Sue Officials Over Kevin O’Leary Data Center Plan
Utah residents and a progressive nonprofit are suing officials over Kevin O’Leary’s planned Stratos Project AI data center, arguing that the special authority overseeing it gives unelected officials too much control over land use, taxation, public health, and local governance. The lawsuit comes as O’Leary has agreed to shrink the proposed 40,000-ac … ⌘ Read more

Scientists Find Wind Blowing From Our Milky Way’s Black Hole
After 50 years of searching, astronomers say they have finally found evidence of a long-sought “wind” blowing from Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. “Unless a black hole exists in a perfect vacuum, it must blow a wind somehow. And there is no perfect vacuum in the universe,” team co-leader and Northwestern Uni … ⌘ Read more

Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Reaches Criticality In First Test
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Just over a year ago, the Trump Administration issued an executive order meant to accelerate the development of nuclear power in the US. While an entire startup ecosystem has developed around the use of different – and typically smaller – reactor designs, only one of them has been fully li … ⌘ Read more

The US Military Quietly Turned GPS Into a Global ‘Numbers Station,’ Evidence Suggests
A security researcher says evidence suggests the U.S. military has been using an obscure GPS message field for nearly 20 years to broadcast encrypted key-distribution data, effectively turning GPS satellites into a global “numbers station.” The hidden-looking 176-bit messages appear tied to the Pentagon’s Ove … ⌘ Read more

Google Will Pay SpaceX $920 Million Per Month For Compute
Ahead of its upcoming IPO, SpaceX announced that Google will pay the company $920 million per month for access to roughly 110,000 Nvidia GPUs and related compute infrastructure. Google says the agreement is short-term “bridge capacity” to meet stronger-than-expected demand for Gemini Enterprise, while SpaceX is using deals like this and its Anthropic contra … ⌘ Read more

Bitcoin Falls To $60,000 As Zcash Bug Rocks Crypto
Bitcoin briefly fell below $60,000 on Friday, “extending its weekly loss to nearly 20% and threatening to fall below $59,000,” reports CoinDesk. Crypto was also hit by a 40%-plus plunge in Zcash after Shielded Labs disclosed a years-old bug that could have allowed undetected counterfeit ZEC creation. From the report: Now, with stocks in plunge mode – the Nasdaq down nearly 4% o … ⌘ Read more

340 Local News Outlets Now Blocking the Internet Archive
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Techdirt: Earlier this year Nieman Lab broke the story that major news publishers, including The New York Times, The Guardian, and USA Today Co., had started blocking the Internet Archive for fear that AI companies might scrape the nonprofit’s repositories for training data. As one of the last bastions of archival history … ⌘ Read more

GOV.UK Goes Dutch On Payments As It Dumps Stripe
The UK’s Government Digital Service is replacing Stripe with Dutch payments provider Adyen for many GOV.UK Pay transactions, including local authorities, police forces, and armed forces units. The three-year deal covers about 1,000 services and is meant to make payments more flexible while keeping the user experience largely unchanged. The Register reports: According to the tend … ⌘ Read more

BSA Lashes Out At Mandatory Open-Source Licensing
Longtime Slashdot reader Elektroschock writes: The American Business Software Alliance (BSA) does not consider mandatory open-source licensing to be an appropriate indicator of sovereignty. This is among the “pointed messages” they sent to the French government consultation (closed) today. “What protects Europe is the ability to govern, audit, and mitigate risk, not where a c … ⌘ Read more

Google Says It Will Replenish More Water Than It Uses At Data Centers
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 9to5Google: There’s been a lot of pushback in recent months around the impact of AI data centers on local communities, with the use of water being a key issue for many. Google, in an expansion of its “water stewardship” programs, is making commitments that include replenishing more water than it … ⌘ Read more

Valve Says Steam Machine ‘Shipping This Summer’
Valve says its long-awaited Steam Machine and Steam Frame are both “shipping this summer.” The company is also expanding its Verified program beyond Steam Deck to cover the new hardware. “Steam Verified is a developer-focused program where game makers ensure that their titles are capable of running on the Deck (meaning they’ll run fine under Linux), that the UI elements and tex … ⌘ Read more

ISS Astronauts Told To Prepare For Possible Evacuation Over Air Leak
NASA ordered astronauts on the International Space Station to shelter in their spacecraft and prepare for possible evacuation after a worsening air leak in the Russian Zvezda service module’s transfer tunnel. The Guardian reports: The four astronauts of NASA’s Crew-12 mission on the station – two US astronauts, a French astronaut and … ⌘ Read more

Used Waymo Robotaxi Batteries Become Backup Storage For Power Grids
Waymo and B2U Storage Solutions have struck a “strategic supply agreement” to repurpose used batteries from Waymo’s electric robotaxi fleet into stationary storage for California and Texas power grids. The arrangement could give robotaxi batteries a second life storing renewable energy after they’re no longer suitable for vehicle use. I … ⌘ Read more

Bees Can Use Tools To Solve Problems, Study Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Bumblebees can use tools to solve a problem, according to experiments that demonstrate their remarkably advanced cognitive abilities. The bees were given an adapted version of an experiment that, 100 years ago, first demonstrated chimpanzees could work out how to retrieve an out-of-reach banana by stacking boxes. Since … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Urges Global Pause in AI Development, Flags ‘Self-Improvement’ Risk
Anthropic is urging leading AI labs to consider slowing development, warning that frontier models are advancing fast enough that they may soon be able to improve themselves without direct human intervention. The company says a global ability to pause or slow AI development would “likely be a good thing,” citing internal data abou … ⌘ Read more

New IronWorm Malware Hits 36 Packages In npm Supply-Chain Attack
A new npm supply-chain attack has infected 36 packages with Rust-based infostealer malware called IronWorm. According to BleepingComputer, the malware “targets 86 environment variables (key-value pairs) and 20 credential files that may contain OpenAI, AWS, Anthropic, and npm credentials, vault configuration files, SSH keys, and Exodus cryptocurrenc … ⌘ Read more

Companies Are Using Reddit To Manipulate ChatGPT and Google AI Search
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: The moderators of the biohacking subreddit say that peptide and hormone replacement therapy companies have been surreptitiously spamming Reddit in an attempt to get their posts scraped by AI chatbots. The strategy is an effort to systematically manipulate the answers provided by chatbo … ⌘ Read more

Meta Keeps Delaying the Release of Its New AI Model to Developers
Meta has reportedly delayed the developer release of its Muse Spark AI model API multiple times, and as of Tuesday, had no scheduled launch date, according to the Wall Street Journal (paywalled). Reuters reports: A Meta spokesperson told Reuters on Wednesday that the company is already testing the Application Programming Interface (API) with som … ⌘ Read more

LinkedIn China Spying Threat Prompts Warning From US, Allies
The U.S. and its Five Eyes intelligence partners issued a joint warning (PDF) that Chinese military intelligence services are using LinkedIn and other professional networking sites to recruit people with access to government, military, foreign policy, or sensitive economic information. “These actors use an aggressive online recruitment strategy whereby in … ⌘ Read more

Supreme Court Sides With Trump Administration On Federal Regulation of Telecom Companies
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: The Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration Thursday in upholding the power of federal regulators to enforce data privacy laws on telecommunications companies. The 8-1 decision (PDF) preserved one of the Federal Communications C … ⌘ Read more

Samsung Ditches New Jersey For Texas, Costing Garden State 1,000 Jobs
schwit1 shares a report from NJ.com: Samsung is pulling up stakes in New Jersey and heading to Texas, a move that could leave roughly 1,000 Garden State workers facing a stark choice: relocate or risk losing their jobs. The South Korean tech giant confirmed this week that it will move its US headquarters from Englewood Cliffs, NJ, to its exist … ⌘ Read more

Apple Is Bringing Age Verification To Texas This Week
joshuark shares a report from The Verge: Apple will introduce age verification in the App Store for users in Texas starting on Thursday, June 4th. The move, as spotted by MacRumors, comes just days after a federal appeals court allowed Texas’ App Store Accountability Act to go into effect while a lawsuit against it proceeds. People in Texas who are creating a new App … ⌘ Read more

Google Ordered To Put Clearer Links In AI Search, Let UK Publishers Opt Out
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: UK regulators today ordered (PDF) Google to put clearer attributions and links to publishers’ content in its AI-generated search features. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) also said Google must give publishers a way to opt out of AI features in search. “In … ⌘ Read more

NASA Says Goodbye to Its Longtime Mars MAVEN Mission
NASA has officially ended the MAVEN mission after the Mars orbiter stopped responding in December, apparently after an unexpected spin drained its batteries and knocked out communications. Launched in 2013 and orbiting Mars since 2014, MAVEN spent more than a decade studying how the planet lost its atmosphere and helped explain how Mars transformed from a potentially … ⌘ Read more

Amazon’s New Stargate Series Is Officially Dead
Amazon has reportedly killed its planned new Stargate series despite giving it a series order in 2025. According to Variety, studio executives were worried it would only appeal to longtime fans. ScreenRant reports: Reports of what became Gero’s Stargate series started in 2022, after Amazon acquired MGM Studios. Dean Devlin, who co-wrote the 1994 Stargate movie with Emmeri … ⌘ Read more

Demand Is Booming For New No Tech, Repairable Tractor
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: The secondary market for decades old, low-tech John Deere tractors has been booming for years as farmers have sought reliable tractors that they can actually fix without having to deal with John Deere’s repair monopoly. A Canadian company has seen that demand and came up with a radical thought: What if they made a new … ⌘ Read more

Fedora Linux 43 Exposes 20-Year-Old Microsoft Outlook Security Failure
BrianFagioli writes: Fedora Linux 43 users upgrading to the latest Dovecot mail server discovered something rather unsettling: some older Microsoft Outlook configurations may have been silently ignoring SSL/TLS settings for POP3 email connections for years. According to a Fedora community blog post, affected Outlook clients reportedl … ⌘ Read more