Perhaps unsurprisingly, Americans who highly value religion are much more likely to have friendship circles where most people are from their own religious tradition. More than four-in-ten U.S. adults who say religion is very or somewhat important in their lives (44%) say all or most of their friends have the same religion they...
A team of researchers at the University of Tokyo has built a bridge between large language models and robots that promises more humanlike gestures while dispensing with traditional hardware-dependent controls.
"Thanks to LLM, we are now free from the iterative labor," the authors said.
Now, they can simply provide verbal instructions describing the desired movements and deliver a prompt instructing the LLM to create Python code that runs the Android engine.
Alter3 retains activities in memory, and researchers can refine and adjust its actions, leading to faster, smoother, and more accurate movements over time.
San Francisco police Sergeant David Radford contacted Tesla in May 2020 with a request on a case: Could the automaker provide data on an alleged stalker’s remote access to a vehicle?...
Blue Origin’s 24th mission is officially a success. The New Shepard rocket took off as planned this morning and the booster and crew capsule safely separated mid-flight and landed back on this great blue marble we call Earth.
When a Twitter account for Utah business coach Spencer Taggart began posting about hot-button political issues in 2020, it garnered widespread attention. Tweets about an endemic cultural divide in the US and support for Black Lives Matter were shared by two Chinese embassy officials....
The Catholic Church sold around 30,000 children to adoptive parents without their mother's consent or knowledge, new testimonies reported by Het Laatste Nieuws reveal.
In addition to mentioning the Nazi death camp, David Azoulai said in a radio interview that Israel should forcibly send Palestinians to refugee camps in Lebanon.
If your immune system or drugs can’t stop a viral infection, why not pit a virus against itself? That’s the provocative idea several labs are pursuing. They are studying whether deliberately introducing engineered viruses into people infected with their natural relatives can “drive” a foreign gene into those viruses that...
'October 25, 2022 has been called Britain’s “Obama Moment”: On that day, Rishi Sunak became the country’s first ever non-white Prime Minister. But Britain’s current head of government represents an even bigger change. As a practicing Hindu, Sunak also is Britain’s first non-Christian PM. And although Sunak won his...
Conservative pundits and right-wing Christian media figures have rejected the scientific consensus that human activity is fueling the warming climate and exacerbating extreme weather events, instead claiming that God controls the weather and attributing natural disasters to “demonic attack,” biblical prophecy, or a supposed...
Apple has begun piloting an App Store feature called contingent pricing that will let developers offer cheaper subscriptions to customers based on the other subscriptions they already hold. The company says it's meant to help developers "attract and retain subscribers."
"India has become the first country to demonstrate the capability of engaging four targets simultaneously at around 30 km ranges by command guidance using a single firing unit."
Burkina Faso scientist Abdoulaye Diabate is developing an innovative technique that could potentially wipe out malaria-transmitting mosquito species by altering their genes.
Research shared exclusively with WIRED shows that Copilot, Microsoft’s AI chatbot, often responds to questions about elections with lies and conspiracy theories.
A marketing team within media giant Cox Media Group (CMG) claims it has the capability to listen to ambient conversations of consumers through embedded microphones in smartphones, smart TVs, and other devices to gather data and use it to target ads, according to a review of CMG marketing materials by 404 Media and details from a...
You are generalizing too much here. I know many who have tried out a product only after seeing its ad. Ads can give plenty of returns to brands. But targeted ads which even exploits our most intimate conversations are really bad news for our right to privacy.
A marketing team within media giant Cox Media Group (CMG) claims it has the capability to listen to ambient conversations of consumers through embedded microphones in smartphones, smart TVs, and other devices to gather data and use it to target ads, according to a review of CMG marketing materials by 404 Media and details from a...
CNN's Clarissa Ward witnessed the horror and humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza during a visit to a field hospital in Rafah operated by the United Arab Emirates. Watch the full report....
A web developer from Peru says he became depressed and his business was devastated after US authorities wrongly accused him of bomb threats and child sex offences.
Amazon.com Inc., which launched its first internet satellites in October, says it will use space lasers to ensure reliable broadband coverage even in the middle of the ocean....
Quantum computing could shred the encryption that guards digital information. Great powers are sprinting to master this technology to crack their adversaries’ codes.
In one of the coolest and more outrageous repair stories in quite some time, three white-hat hackers helped a regional rail company in southwest Poland unbrick a train that had been artificially rendered inoperable by the train’s manufacturer after an independent maintenance company worked on it. The train’s manufacturer is...
Nah, they are probably just mad that the rail company didn't come to them for maintainance and went to someone else (who probably was just as good but cheaper). They are just looking for money.
Today, there may be transient issues with voting, counters, etc. I'm working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Also, there might be 2-3 brief interruptions in the website's operation. Thank you for your patience!
A majority of Americans have a friend of a different religion (www.pewresearch.org)
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Americans who highly value religion are much more likely to have friendship circles where most people are from their own religious tradition. More than four-in-ten U.S. adults who say religion is very or somewhat important in their lives (44%) say all or most of their friends have the same religion they...
GPT-4 driven robot takes selfies, 'eats' popcorn (techxplore.com)
A team of researchers at the University of Tokyo has built a bridge between large language models and robots that promises more humanlike gestures while dispensing with traditional hardware-dependent controls.
An abused wife took on Tesla over tracking tech. She lost. (www.reuters.com)
San Francisco police Sergeant David Radford contacted Tesla in May 2020 with a request on a case: Could the automaker provide data on an alleged stalker’s remote access to a vehicle?...
Blue Origin returns to form with a successful rocket launch after being grounded for over a year (www.engadget.com)
Blue Origin’s 24th mission is officially a success. The New Shepard rocket took off as planned this morning and the booster and crew capsule safely separated mid-flight and landed back on this great blue marble we call Earth.
Mold of the internet: This Clunky Chinese Disinformation Effort Has Spread Everywhere (tech.hindustantimes.com)
When a Twitter account for Utah business coach Spencer Taggart began posting about hot-button political issues in 2020, it garnered widespread attention. Tweets about an endemic cultural divide in the US and support for Black Lives Matter were shared by two Chinese embassy officials....
Anas Hassan Deserves Unconditional Release From Prison (goodmenproject.com)
Why are atheists persecuted with religious or theocratic law when they do not even believe in the religion or God's Law, so called?
Catholic Church put up 30,000 children for adoption without mothers' consent (www.brusselstimes.com)
The Catholic Church sold around 30,000 children to adoptive parents without their mother's consent or knowledge, new testimonies reported by Het Laatste Nieuws reveal.
Israeli Official Suggests Gaza Be ‘Flattened Completely, Just Like Auschwitz Today’ (www.huffpost.com)
In addition to mentioning the Nazi death camp, David Azoulai said in a radio interview that Israel should forcibly send Palestinians to refugee camps in Lebanon.
Nasa beams cat video from deep space with laser (www.bbc.com)
The ultra HD footage of Taters the cat was sent as the agency tries to improve space communications.
NASA’s GUSTO balloon telescope will map part of the Milky Way (www.theverge.com)
The first to be funded as part of the Explorers Program, GUSTO will spend at least 55 days floating above Antarctica.
Adobe abandons $20 billion acquisition of Figma (www.theverge.com)
Under pressure from regulators, Adobe calls off its plans to acquire a leading competitor....
2023 was the year the economics of tech caught up with reality (www.engadget.com)
We're about to see what happens when an industry built on failed bets suddenly has to pay back its debts.
Flipboard is pivoting to ActivityPub and the fediverse (www.theverge.com)
Another walled garden is opening up to the new social web.
EU takes action against Elon Musk's X over disinformation (www.bbc.com)
The EU says it is launching "formal enforcement proceedings" against the social media platform.
Fighting viruses with viruses? ‘Gene drive’ offers new strategy to beat infections (www.science.org)
If your immune system or drugs can’t stop a viral infection, why not pit a virus against itself? That’s the provocative idea several labs are pursuing. They are studying whether deliberately introducing engineered viruses into people infected with their natural relatives can “drive” a foreign gene into those viruses that...
An update regarding m/Atheism (kbin.social)
I have taken over the ownership of this magazine/community as it was classified as abandoned....
Ilya Sutskever’s Team at OpenAI Built Tools to Control a Superhuman AI (gizmodo.com)
OpenAI Chief Scientist’s status remains unclear, but his “Superalignment” team put out a groundbreaking paper on the path to AGI.
Christianity Is Disappearing in England, As Seen in These Maps (www.atlasobscura.com)
'October 25, 2022 has been called Britain’s “Obama Moment”: On that day, Rishi Sunak became the country’s first ever non-white Prime Minister. But Britain’s current head of government represents an even bigger change. As a practicing Hindu, Sunak also is Britain’s first non-Christian PM. And although Sunak won his...
Conservative commentators and right-wing Christian media deny climate change by claiming God controls the weather (www.mediamatters.org)
Conservative pundits and right-wing Christian media figures have rejected the scientific consensus that human activity is fueling the warming climate and exacerbating extreme weather events, instead claiming that God controls the weather and attributing natural disasters to “demonic attack,” biblical prophecy, or a supposed...
Apple is testing a feature to help App Store developers undercut competitors’ subscription prices (www.engadget.com)
Apple has begun piloting an App Store feature called contingent pricing that will let developers offer cheaper subscriptions to customers based on the other subscriptions they already hold. The company says it's meant to help developers "attract and retain subscribers."
Akash missile system destroys 4 targets simultaneously during Air Force exercise (www.indiatoday.in)
"India has become the first country to demonstrate the capability of engaging four targets simultaneously at around 30 km ranges by command guidance using a single firing unit."
African Scientist aims to eradicate malaria by editing mosquito DNA | CNN (edition.cnn.com)
Burkina Faso scientist Abdoulaye Diabate is developing an innovative technique that could potentially wipe out malaria-transmitting mosquito species by altering their genes.
Microsoft’s AI Chatbot Replies to Election Questions With Conspiracies, Fake Scandals, and Lies (www.wired.com)
Research shared exclusively with WIRED shows that Copilot, Microsoft’s AI chatbot, often responds to questions about elections with lies and conspiracy theories.
Ubiquiti blunder let some customers watch others' feeds (www.theregister.com)
Cloud misconfig blamed and now fixed
TikTok requires users to “forever waive” rights to sue over past harms (arstechnica.com)
TikTok may be seeking to avoid increasingly high costs of mass arbitration.
Quest owners can use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in VR, but do you really want to? (www.theverge.com)
Three of Microsoft’s Office apps are now available on Meta’s Quest headsets, and while they aren’t optimized for VR, they work in a pinch.
Marketing Company Claims That It Actually Is Listening to Your Phone and Smart Speakers to Target Ads (www.404media.co)
A marketing team within media giant Cox Media Group (CMG) claims it has the capability to listen to ambient conversations of consumers through embedded microphones in smartphones, smart TVs, and other devices to gather data and use it to target ads, according to a review of CMG marketing materials by 404 Media and details from a...
Marketing Company Claims That It Actually Is Listening to Your Phone and Smart Speakers to Target Ads (www.404media.co)
A marketing team within media giant Cox Media Group (CMG) claims it has the capability to listen to ambient conversations of consumers through embedded microphones in smartphones, smart TVs, and other devices to gather data and use it to target ads, according to a review of CMG marketing materials by 404 Media and details from a...
Google will update Maps to prevent authorities from accessing location history data (www.theverge.com)
Google’s latest update to Maps protects users’ locations from law enforcement.
Zuckerberg says Threads will dip its toe in the 'fediverse' as it opens to Europe (www.nbcnews.com)
Threads will use ActivityPub, the same technology that other networks such as Mastodon have embraced as a way to make social media more open.
CNN visited a Gaza hospital. This is what we saw (youtu.be)
CNN's Clarissa Ward witnessed the horror and humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza during a visit to a field hospital in Rafah operated by the United Arab Emirates. Watch the full report....
US drops charges against Peruvian man accused of hoax bomb threats (www.bbc.co.uk)
A web developer from Peru says he became depressed and his business was devastated after US authorities wrongly accused him of bomb threats and child sex offences.
Amazon’s Internet Satellites Will Use Space Lasers to Transmit Data (www.bloomberg.com)
Amazon.com Inc., which launched its first internet satellites in October, says it will use space lasers to ensure reliable broadband coverage even in the middle of the ocean....
Google's and Apple's walled gardens will survive Epic’s court win (www.livemint.com)
A US court ruling against Google’s app store policies has shaken the layout of these gardens a bit, but they’ll stay in place—for now....
U.S. and China race to shield secrets from quantum computers (www.reuters.com)
Quantum computing could shred the encryption that guards digital information. Great powers are sprinting to master this technology to crack their adversaries’ codes.
Atheists are nicer to Christians than Christians are to atheists (www.independent.co.uk)
Atheists behave 'impartially toward ingroup and outgroup partners,' while Christians demonstrate 'an ingroup bias'
Google Will Turn Off Cookies for 30 Million People on January 4 (gizmodo.com)
Google’s cookie-killing “Privacy Sandbox” project is finally set to begin.
Intel’s Core Ultra CPUs are here — and they all come with silicon dedicated to AI (www.theverge.com)
Intel has finally revealed the details on the Core Ultra 9.
Threads launches for nearly half a billion more users in Europe (www.theverge.com)
Months after its launch in over 100 other countries.
Google Wrapped 2023 | Everything Toxic Google Did in the last 12 months. (youtube.com)
A lot can happen in a year when you're the worlds largest search engine.
Polish Hackers Repaired Trains the Manufacturer Artificially Bricked. Now The Train Company Is Threatening Them (www.404media.co)
In one of the coolest and more outrageous repair stories in quite some time, three white-hat hackers helped a regional rail company in southwest Poland unbrick a train that had been artificially rendered inoperable by the train’s manufacturer after an independent maintenance company worked on it. The train’s manufacturer is...
Some turbulence on the instance (kbin.social)
Today, there may be transient issues with voting, counters, etc. I'm working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Also, there might be 2-3 brief interruptions in the website's operation. Thank you for your patience!