Social Media’s Relentless Shopping Machine Has Created an Army of Debt-Laden Buyers
The influencer economy that Goldman Sachs projects will reach nearly half a trillion dollars by 2027 depends on a less-examined population: the influenced, millions of people who find themselves accumulating debt and clutter after years of exposure to what amounts to a 24/7 digital infomercial.

Antoinette Hocb … ⌘ Read more

China’s Growth Is Coming at the Rest of the World’s Expense
China has contributed less to global growth this year than the U.S. despite Beijing’s frequent criticism of protectionism, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis citing new research from Goldman Sachs economists. U.S. imports are up 10% so far this year compared to a year earlier, while China’s imports have fallen 3% in dollar terms. Goldman’s economists fou … ⌘ Read more

Denmark Posts Its Last Letters as Hallowed National Mail Ends
Denmark’s postal service, established by King Christian IV four centuries ago as one of Europe’s first modern mail systems, will stop delivering letters on December 30, ending a tradition that once saw riders given a maximum of 45 minutes to cover each 10-kilometer stretch of routes running from Hamburg to Norway.

PostNord, the postal service Denmark h … ⌘ Read more

How the Dollar-Store Industry Overcharges Cash-Strapped Customers While Promising Low Prices
Dollar General and Family Dollar stores have collectively failed more than 6,400 government price-accuracy inspections since January 2022, charging customers more at checkout than the prices displayed on shelves for everything from frozen pizzas to puppy food, according to an investigation by the … ⌘ Read more

Google Says First AI Glasses With Gemini Will Arrive in 2026
Google said it’s working to create two different categories of artificial intelligence-powered smart glasses to compete next year with existing models from Meta Platforms: one with screens, and another that’s audio focused. From a report: The first AI glasses that Google is collaborating on will arrive sometime in 2026, it said in a blog post Monday. Sam … ⌘ Read more

Japan Issues Tsunami Warning After Magnitude 7.6 Earthquake
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake has shaken Japan, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. From a report: A tsunami as high as 3 metres (10ft) could hit the country’s north-eastern coast after the earthquake occurred offshore at 11.15pm local time (2.15pm GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued f … ⌘ Read more

How a Cryptocurrency Helps Criminals Launder Money and Evade Sanctions
An investigation has revealed how stablecoins – cryptocurrencies pegged to the US dollar that exist largely beyond traditional financial oversight – have become a practical tool for criminals and sanctioned individuals to move funds across borders almost instantly and convert them back into spendable money, often without detection.
… ⌘ Read more

The Accounting Uproar Over How Fast an AI Chip Depreciates
Tech giants including Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon have all extended the estimated useful lives of their servers and AI equipment over the past five years, sparking a debate among investors about whether these accounting changes are artificially inflating profits. Meta this year increased its depreciation timeline for most servers and network assets … ⌘ Read more

Paramount Skydance Launches Hostile Bid For WBD After Netflix Wins Bidding War
Paramount Skydance is launching a hostile bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery after it lost out to Netflix in a months-long bidding war for the legacy assets, the company said Monday. CNBC: Paramount will go straight to WBD shareholders with an all-cash, $30-per-share offer. That’s the same bid WBD rejected last … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Pitches AI Tools as Co-Workers While Axing Jobs
Amazon used its annual re:Invent cloud conference in Las Vegas to pitch a vision of the workplace where AI agents serve not as tools but as “co-workers” and “teammates,” even as the company proceeds with eliminating roughly 14,000 corporate jobs in its second major workforce reduction in recent years.

AWS CEO Matt Garman predicted on stage that autonomous “frontier agent … ⌘ Read more

Idaho Lab Produces World’s First Molten Salt Fuel for Nuclear Reactors
America’s Energy Department runs a research lab in Idaho — and this week announced successful results from a ground-breaking experiment. “This is the first time in history that chloride-based molten salt fuel has been produced for a fast reactor,” says Bill Phillips, the lab’s technical lead for salt synthesis. He calls it “a major … ⌘ Read more

Was the Airbus A320 Recall Caused By Cosmic Rays?
What triggered that Airbus emergency software recall? The BBC reports that Airbus’s initial investigation into an aircraft’s sudden drop in altitude linked it “to a malfunction in one of the aircraft’s computers that controls moving parts on the aircraft’s wings and tail.” But that malfunction “seems to have been triggered by cosmic radiation bombarding the Earth on the day of … ⌘ Read more

All of Russia’s Porsches Were Bricked By a Mysterious Satellite Outage
An anonymous reader shared this report from Autoblog:

Imagine walking out to your car, pressing the start button, and getting absolutely nothing. No crank, no lights on the dash, nothing. That’s exactly what happened to hundreds of Porsche owners in Russia last week. The issue is with the Vehicle Tracking System, a satellite-based sec … ⌘ Read more

Can This Simple Invention Convert Waste Heat Into Electricity?
Nuclear engineer Lonnie Johnson worked on NASA’s Galileo mission, has more than 140 patents, and invented the Super Soaker water gun.
But now he’s working on “a potential key to unlock a huge power source that’s rarely utilized today,” reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. [Alternate URL here.]

Waste heat…

The Johnson Thermo-Electrochemi … ⌘ Read more

Why Meetings Can Harm Employee Well-Being
Phys.org republishes this article from The Conversation:

On average, managers spend 23 hours a week in meetings. Much of what happens in them is considered to be of low value, or even entirely counterproductive. The paradox is that bad meetings generate even more meetings… in an attempt to repair the damage caused by previous ones…

A 2015 handbook laid the groundwork for the nascent fiel … ⌘ Read more

EU Urged to Soften 2035 Ban on Internal Combustion Engine Cars
Friday six European Union countries “asked the European Commission to water down an effective ban on the sale of internal combustion engine cars slated for 2035,” reports Reuters

The countries have asked the EU Commission to allow the sale of hybrid cars or vehicles powered by other, existing or future, technologies “that could contribute to the goa … ⌘ Read more

College Students Flock To A New Major: AI
AI is the second-largest major at M.I.T. after computer science, reports the New York Times. (Alternate URL here.) Though that includes students interested in applying AI in biology and health care — it’s just the beginning:

This semester, more than 3,000 students enrolled in a new college of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
At the Unive … ⌘ Read more

No Rise in Radiation Levels at Chernobyl, Despite Damage from February’s Drone Strike
UPDATE (12/7): The New York Times clarifies today that the damage at Chernobyl hasn’t led to a rise in radiation levels:

“If there was to be some event inside the shelter that would release radioactive materials into the space inside the New Safe Confinement, because this facility is no longer sealed t … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Insists Target Links in ChatGPT Responses Weren’t Ads But ‘Suggestions’ - But Turns Them Off
A hardware security response from ChatGPT ended with “Shop for home and groceries. Connect Target.”

But “There are no live tests for ads” on ChatGPT, insists Nick Turley, OpenAI’s head of ChatGPT. Posting on X.com, he said “any screenshots you’ve seen are either not real or not ads.” … ⌘ Read more

How Home Assistant Leads a ‘Local-First Rebellion’
It runs locally, a free/open source home automation platform connecting all your devices together, regardless of brand. And GitHub’s senior developer calls it “one of the most active, culturally important, and technically demanding open source ecosystems on the planet,” with tens of thousands of contributors and millions of installations.

That’s confirmed by this year’s “Oct … ⌘ Read more

Why Gen Z is Using Retro Tech
“People in their teens and early 20s are increasingly turning to old school tech,” reports the BBC, “in a bid to unplug from the online world.”

Amazon UK told BBC Scotland News that retro-themed products surged in popularity during its Black Friday event, with portable vinyl turntables, Tamagotchis and disposable cameras among their best sellers. Retailers Currys and John Lewis also said they had seen retro gadge … ⌘ Read more

Is Netflix Trying to Buy Warner Bros. or Kill It?
Why does Netflix want to buy Warner Bros, asks the chief film critic at the long-running motion-picture magazine Variety. “It is hard, at this moment, to resist the suspicion that the ultimate reason… is to eliminate the competition.”

[Warner Bros. is] one of the only companies that’s keeping movies as we’ve known them alive… Some people think movies are going t … ⌘ Read more

New FreeBSD 15 Retires 32-Bit Ports and Modernizes Builds
FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE arrived this week, notes this report from The Register, which calls it the latest release “of the Unix world’s leading alternative to Linux.”

As well as numerous bug fixes and upgrades to many of its components, the major changes in this version are reductions in the number of platforms the OS supports, and in how it’s built and how its … ⌘ Read more

Homebrew Can Now Help You Install Flatpaks Too
“Homebrew, the package manager for macOS and Linux, just got a handy new feature in the latest v5.0.4 update,” reports How-To Geek.

Brewfile install scripts “are now more like a one-stop shop for installing software, as Flatpaks are now supported alongside Brew packages, Mac App Store Apps, and other packages.”

For those times when you need to install many software packages at on … ⌘ Read more

Many Privileged Students at US Universities are Getting Extra Time on Tests After ‘Disability’ Diagnoses
Today America’s college professors “struggle to accommodate the many students with an official disability designation,” reports the Atlantic, “which may entitle them to extra time, a distraction-free environment, or the use of otherwise-prohibited technology.”

Their st … ⌘ Read more

Is Ruby Still a ‘Serious’ Programming Language?
Wired published an article by California-based writer/programmer Sheon Han arguing that Ruby “is not a serious programming language.”

Han believes that the world of programming has “moved on”, and “everything Ruby does, another language now does better, leaving it without a distinct niche.

Ruby is easy on the eyes. Its syntax is simple, free of semicolons or brackets. More s … ⌘ Read more

New Jolla Phone Now Available for Pre-Order as an Independent Linux Phone
Jolla is “trying again with a new crowd-funded smartphone,” reports Phoronix:

Finnish company Jolla started out 14 years ago where Nokia left off with MeeGo and developed Sailfish OS as a new Linux smartphone platform. Jolla released their first smartphone in 2013 after crowdfunding but ultimately the Sailfish OS focus the pa … ⌘ Read more

The Anxieties of Full-Body MRI Scans (Not Covered by Insurance)
Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank calls himself “a highly creative hypochondriac” — who just paid for an expensive MRI scan to locate abnormal spots as tiny as 2 millimeters.

He discusses the pros and cons of its “diffusion-weighted imaging” technology combined with the pattern recognition of AI, which theoretically “has the potential to save … ⌘ Read more

Could America’s Paper Checks Be On the Way Out, Like the Penny?
“First the penny. Next, paper checks?” asks CNN:

When the U.S. Mint stopped making pennies last month for the first time in 238 years, it drew a lot of attention. But there have been quiet moves to stop using paper checks as well. The government stopped sending out most paper checks to recipients as of the end of September, part of an effort to fully … ⌘ Read more

Google Must Limit Its ‘Default Search’ Contracts to One Year, Judge Rules
Bloomberg reports that Google “must renegotiate any contract to make its search engine or artificial intelligence app the default for smartphones and other devices every year, a federal judge ruled.”

Judge Amit Mehta in Washington sided with the US Justice Department on the one year limitation in his final ruling on what changes th … ⌘ Read more

Woman Hailed As a Hero For Smashing Man’s Meta Smart Glasses On Subway
“Woman Hailed as Hero for Smashing Man’s Meta Smart Glasses on Subway,” reads the headline at Futurism:

As Daily Dot reports, a New York subway rider has accused a woman of breaking his Meta smart glasses. “She just broke my Meta glasses,” said the TikTok user, who goes by eth8n, in a video that has since garnered millions of views.

” … ⌘ Read more

A 1950s Material Just Set a Modern Record For Lightning-fast Chips
“Researchers engineered a strained germanium layer on silicon that allows charge to move faster than in any silicon-compatible material to date,” reports Science Daily. “This record mobility could lead to chips that run cooler, faster, and with dramatically lower energy consumption.

“The discovery also enhances the prospects for silicon- … ⌘ Read more

Chernobyl’s Protective Shield Can No Longer Confine Radiation, UN Nuclear Watchdog Says
“A structure designed to prevent radioactive leakage at the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine is no longer operational,” reports Politico, “after Russian drones targeted it earlier this year, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog has found.”

[T]he large steel structure “lost its primary safety fun … ⌘ Read more

Aptera’s Solar-Powered EVs Take Another Step Toward Production
To build three-wheeled, solar electric vehicles, Aptera has now launched its “validation” vehicle assembly line, reports the San Diego Business Journal.

“The validation line will set a technical foundation for the company’s eventual low-volume assembly line, ensuring that manufacturing processes are optimized and refined, particularly for the company … ⌘ Read more

Why These Parents Want Schools to Stop Issuing iPads to the Their Children
What happened when a school in Los Angeles gave a sixth grader an iPad for use throughout the school day? “He used the iPad during school to watch YouTube and participate in Fortnite video game battles,” reports NBC News.

His mother has now launched a coalition of parents called Schools Beyond Screens “organizing in WhatsAp … ⌘ Read more

Could Netflix’s Deal for Warner Bros. Fall Apart?
While Netflix hopes to buy Warner Bros. Discovery for $72 billion, CNBC reports a senior official in America’s federal government said the administration was viewing the deal with “heavy skepticism. And that’s not the only hurdle:

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Paramount, in a letter to lawyers for Warner Bros. Discovery [WBD], had warned that a s … ⌘ Read more

The AI Boom Could Increase Prices for Phones and Tablets Next Year
CNN’s prediction for 2026? “Any device that uses memory, from phones to tablets and smartwatches, could get pricier.” But will it be a little or a lot?

The article cites an analysis from multinational strategy/management consulting firm McKinsey & Company which found America’s data center demand could continue growing by 20 to 25 percent … ⌘ Read more

Linus Torvalds Defends Windows’ Blue Screen of Death
Linus Torvalds recently defended Windows’ infamous Blue Screen of Death during a video with Linus Sebastian of Linus Tech Tips, where the two built a PC together. It’s FOSS reports: In that video, Sebastian discussed Torvalds’ fondness for ECC (Error Correction Code). I am using their last name because Linus will be confused with Linus. This is where Torvalds says this: … ⌘ Read more

‘Rage Bait’ Named Oxford Word of the Year 2025
Longtime Slashdot reader sinij shares a report from the BBC: Do you find yourself getting increasingly irate while scrolling through your social media feed? If so, you may be falling victim to rage bait, which Oxford University Press has named its word or phrase of the year. It is a term that describes manipulative tactics used to drive engagement online, with usage of it increasing t … ⌘ Read more

Meta Confirms ‘Shifting Some’ Funding ‘From Metaverse Toward AI Glasses’
Meta has officially confirmed it is shifting investment away from the metaverse and VR toward AI-powered smart glasses, following a Bloomberg report of an up to 30% budget cut for Reality Labs. “Within our overall Reality Labs portfolio we are shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward AI glasses and Wearables given the mom … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Has Trained Its LLM To Confess To Bad Behavior
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: OpenAI is testing another new way to expose the complicated processes at work inside large language models. Researchers at the company can make an LLM produce what they call a confession, in which the model explains how it carried out a task and (most of the time) owns up to any bad behavior. Figuring out why … ⌘ Read more

Blackest Fabric Ever Made Absorbs 99.87% of All Light That Hits It
alternative_right shares a report from ScienceAlert: Engineers at Cornell University have created the blackest fabric on record, finding it absorbs 99.87 percent of all light that dares to illuminate its surface. […] In this case, the Cornell researchers dyed a white merino wool knit fabric with a synthetic melanin polymer called polydo … ⌘ Read more

AI Led To an Increase In Radiologists, Not a Decrease
Despite predictions that AI would replace radiologists, healthcare systems worldwide are hiring more of them because AI tools enhance their work, create new oversight tasks, and increase imaging volumes rather than reducing workloads. “Put all that together with the context of an aging population and growing demand for imaging of all kinds, and you can see why Offia … ⌘ Read more

Trump Wants Asia’s ‘Cute’ Kei Cars To Be Made and Sold In US
sinij shares news of the Trump administration surprising the auto industry by granting approval for “tiny cars” to be built in the United States. Bloomberg reports: President Donald Trump, apparently enamored by the pint-sized Kei cars he saw during his recent trip to Japan, has paved the way for them to be made and sold in the U.S., despite concerns that th … ⌘ Read more

Chinese-Linked Hackers Use Backdoor For Potential ‘Sabotage,’ US and Canada Say
U.S. and Canadian cybersecurity agencies say Chinese-linked actors deployed “Brickstorm” malware to infiltrate critical infrastructure and maintain long-term access for potential sabotage. Reuters reports: The Chinese-linked hacking operations are the latest example of Chinese hackers targeting critical infrastructure, in … ⌘ Read more

Meta Acquires AI Wearable Company Limitless
Meta is acquiring AI wearable startup Limitless, maker of a pendant that records conversations and generates summaries. “We’re excited that Limitless will be joining Meta to help accelerate our work to build AI-enabled wearables,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. CNBC reports: Limitless CEO Dan Siroker revealed the deal on Friday via a corporate blog post but did not disclose … ⌘ Read more

India Reviews Telecom Industry Proposal For Always-On Satellite Location Tracking
India is weighing a proposal to mandate always-on satellite tracking in smartphones for precise government surveillance – an idea strongly opposed by Apple, Google, Samsung, and industry groups. Reuters reports: For years, the [Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s] administration has been concerned its agencies do no … ⌘ Read more

The New York Times Is Suing Perplexity For Copyright Infringement
The New York Times is suing Perplexity for copyright infringement, accusing the AI startup of repackaging its paywalled reporting without permission. TechCrunch reports: The Times joins several media outlets suing Perplexity, including the Chicago Tribune, which also filed suit this week. The Times’ suit claims that “Perplexity provides commerci … ⌘ Read more

Cloudflare Says It Blocked 416 Billion AI Scraping Requests In 5 Months
Cloudflare says it blocked 416 billion AI scraping attempts in five months and warns that AI is reshaping the internet’s economic model – with Google’s combined crawler creating a monopoly-style dilemma where opting out of AI means disappearing from search altogether. Tom’s Hardware reports: “The business model of the internet has … ⌘ Read more

Netflix To Buy Warner Bros. In $72 Billion Cash, Stock Deal
Netflix is buying Warner Bros. Discovery in an $82.7 billion deal that gives it HBO, iconic franchises, and major studio infrastructure. “Warner Bros. shareholders will receive $27.75 a share in cash and stock in Netflix,” notes Bloomberg. “The total equity value of the deal is $72 billion, while the enterprise value of the deal is about $82.7 billio … ⌘ Read more