Undercutting Microsoft, Amazon Offers Free Access to Its AI Coding Assistant ‘CodeWhisperer’

Amazon’s CodeWhisperer generates and suggests code, and now it’s free for individual developers.

== yjc<br

Why Secret Service protection for Donald Trump is different than for other ex-presidents

Former presidents are assigned Secret Service protection for life

== British perspective, but loyalty cards are in use in many places in the world

Loyalty cards: How a big yellow label influences what we buy

Supermarket shoppers have long been on the lookout for yellow stickers placed on cut-price products at the end of the aisle that are approaching their best-before date.

Mars Helicopter ‘Ingenuity’ Completes 50th Flight After Two Years on Mars

The Ingenuity helicopter just achieved a huge milestone on Mars.

Palm trees in Vancouver? Plant fossils suggest region once had a warmer climate

The unearthed fossils, dating back to 40 million years ago, include a fragment from a palm leaf

‘Overemployed’ Hustlers Exploit ChatGPT To Take On Even More Full-Time Jobs

“ChatGPT does like 80 percent of my job,” said one worker. Another is holding the line at four robot-performed jobs. “Five would be overkill,” he said.

== yjc, Barbara is from New Brunswick

60 years and counting: How 3 longtime N.B. eateries have stood the test of time

Strong relationships between staff and customers are one of the keys to success

Million-year-old viruses help fight cancer, say scientists

Relics of ancient viruses - that have spent millions of years hiding inside human DNA - help the body fight cancer, say scientists.

The Paradox of Artificial Intelligence

The emergence of large language models such as GTP4 has revitalized the question of what do we mean by “intelligence” in practical terms.

Nvidia’s Top AI Chips Are Selling for More Than $40,000 on eBay

Nvidia’s H100 graphics cards are selling for more than $40,000 on eBay. The high-end chips are still essential for training and deploying AI software.

Researchers use novel method to find a distant exoplanet

This world is the first confirmed exoplanet found by Gaia’s ability to sense the gravitational tug or ‘wobble’ a planet induces on its star. And the technique points the way to the future of direct exoplanet imaging.

No strings attached. Why these Sudbury, Ont., women are giving away their stuff on Facebook

The Buy Nothing Project estimates over 7 million people worldwide are with swap groups

A Computer Generated Swatting Service Is Causing Havoc Across America

As the U.S. deals with a nationwide swatting wave, Motherboard has traced much of the activity to a particular swatting-as-a-service account on Telegram. Torswats uses synthesized voices to pressure law enforcement to specific locations.

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Spots Jupiter’s Trojan Asteroids For the First Time

Lucy is still millions of miles away from its rocky targets but has managed to peek at them from a distance.

Scientists Create Eco-Friendly Paint That Keeps the Surface Beneath Cool

Instead of pigment-based colored paint, which requires artificially synthesized molecules, a UCF researcher has developed an alternative way to produce colored paint that is more natural, environmentally friendly and light weight.

Another article same subject

A team of researchers in Florida may have just created the world’s coolest paint ever, literally.

Restoring nature can lead to fewer road repairs, Alberta study shows

But a study in Parkland County, Alta., west of Edmonton, shows one way to cut the costs of those upgrades and repairs — by spending strategically on “green infrastructure,” such as building or restoring wetlands, which can work to protect “grey infrastructure,” such as roads.

Amazon CEO Says ‘Really Good’ AI Models Take ‘Billions of Dollars’ To Train

Amazon is introducing a cloud service called Bedrock that developers can use to enhance their software with artificial intelligence systems that can generate text, similar to the engine behind the popular ChatGPT chatbot powered by Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI.

The US Cracked a $3.4 Billion Crypto Heist - and Bitcoin’s Anonymity

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article about U.S. authorities having cracked Bitcoin’s anonymity. However, Bitcoin is pseudonymous, not anonymous, a point often emphasized within the industry.

Record Rise in China’s Sea Levels Threatens Coastal Cities Like Shanghai

Sea levels on China’s coastline have hit their highest on record for the second year in a row, rising more quickly than the global average and posing a serious threat to coastal cities such as the financial hub of Shanghai.

Meta has open-sourced an AI project that turns your doodles into animations

Drawing is a familiar and fun mode of expression, and the characters we draw as beginners are often wonderfully odd, abstract, and imaginative. Who hasn’t wished that those delightful characters might come alive, moving around on the page?

This fussy elephant peels her bananas, but only when they’re perfectly ripe

Pang Pha eats green bananas whole and peels the yellow ones. But don’t dare bring her a brown one.

Intelligence agency says cyber threat actor ‘had the potential’ to damage critical infrastructure

Leaked U.S. intelligence suggested hackers had accessed natural gas distribution network.

Researchers used machine learning to improve the first photo of a black hole

Researchers used computer simulations of black holes and machine learning to generate a revised version of the famous first image of a black hole that was released back in 2019.

== yjc, played a lot of cribbage with my mom and/or uncle

Is cribbage too antiquated to survive this digital world? Players and boardcollectors sure hope not

Enthusiasts admit it’s tough to find a player under 50 at a tourney, but are hopeful game will live on.

Thousands receive diagnosis after 60 new diseases found

Thousands of children with severe developmental disorders have finally been given a diagnosis, in a study that found 60 new diseases.

Weeds: the good, the bad, and the sometimes beautiful (https://theconversation.com/weeds-the-good-the-bad-and-the-sometimes-beautiful-203631?mc_cid=292c72ca6f&mc_eid=d506594bfd)

Poppies, along with other species that grow in fields, can be a problem for crops if they appear in large numbers. We informally call them weeds, but what are they really and how bad are they?

== ?$

How To Get Started With Nostr, Jack Dorsey’s Favorite Decentralized Social Network

The bitcoin bitcoin community’s new favorite social media network, Nostr, is designed to rival email, blogging,

Physicists Discover That Gravity Can Create Light

Researchers have discovered that in the exotic conditions of the early universe, waves of gravity may have shaken space-time so hard that they spontaneously created radiation.

Inside the 3D-Printed Box In Texas Where Humans Will Prepare For Mars

Starting this June, four volunteers will spend a year pretending to live on the red planet inside the Mars Dune Alpha habitat.

How Did Earth Get Its Water?

Earth’s water could have originated from interactions between the hydrogen-rich atmospheres and magma oceans of the planetary embryos that comprised Earth’s formative years,&#8230

== a project from hell?

Twitter teams up with eToro to make it easier to buy stocks and crypto

Starting Thursday, Twitter will give users the option to buy and sell stocks and other assets from eToro, the company told CNBC exclusively.

== probably only of interest to those of us who have been on the canal when frozen

What if we refrigerated the Rideau Canal?

Wayne Borrowman’s cool idea just might save the skateway from climate change and heat your home, too.

Researchers need help to determine which birds are most at risk from climate change. Here’s what you can do

Climate change affects life cycle cues worldwide, knocking ecosystems out of sync.

The bean that could change the taste of coffee

On the fertile slopes of Mount Kenya, an extinct volcano, smallholder coffee farmer Martin Kinyua has decided against planting new crops.

Google’s Free Assured Open Source Software Service Hits General Availability

About a year ago, Google announced its Assured Open Source Software (Assured OSS) service, a service that helps developers defend against supply chain security attacks by regularly scanning and analyzing for vulnerabilities some of the world’s most popular software libraries.

Amazon was responsible for more than half of all ‘serious’ US warehouse injuries last year, report finds

Its warehouse workers are still hurt at twice the industry rate.

The Italian Data Protection Agency gives OpenAI a chance to avoid being banned

ChatGPT: Italian SA to lift temporary limitation if OpenAI implements measures. 30 April set as deadline for compliance.

Six things we learned from Elon Musk interview

Elon Musk has defended how he runs Twitter in a rare and wide-ranging interview with the BBC.

Study reveals cancer’s ‘infinite’ ability to evolve

An unprecedented analysis of how cancers grow has revealed an “almost infinite” ability of tumours to evolve and survive, say scientists.

Mysterious Dark Matter Mapped In Finest Detail Yet

It’s being described as the most detailed ever map of the influence of dark matter through cosmic history.

Developer Creates ‘Self-Healing’ Programs That Fix Themselves Thanks To AI

“Wolverine” experiment can fix Python bugs at runtime and re-run the code.

== gave it a try, don’t know if it will be of longterm interest to most people

NYT Debuts Digits, the Math Version of Wordle

The newspaper of record has launched Digits, a new numbers-based game that tries to replicate the charm of its word puzzles.

Europe is Bracing For Another Devastating Drought

After unusually low amounts of rain and snow this winter, the continent faces a severe water shortage.

Chichen Itza: Archaeologists discover scoreboard for ancient Maya ball game

Archaeologists in Mexico have uncovered an intricately carved stone they believe was used as a scoreboard for pelota, a ball game played by the Maya hundreds of years ago.

Elon Musk reportedly bought thousands of GPUs for a Twitter AI project

Despite recently calling for a six-month pause in the development of powerful AI models, Twitter CEO Elon Musk recently purchased roughly 10,000 GPUs for a generative AI project within Twitter…

== governments are taking notice of AI’s benefits and risks

Commerce Department Looks To Craft AI Safety Rules

The federal government is taking what could be the first steps toward requiring safer, more transparent AI systems…

China Mandates Security Reviews for AI Services Like ChatGPT

China plans to require a security review of generative AI services before they’re allowed to operate,…

== don’t think this is really new news, but…

NASA Reveals What Made an Entire Starlink Satellite Fleet Go Down

At the other end of the space weather spectrum are solar storms that can knock out satellites. The folks at Starlink found that out the hard way in February 2022.

Physicists Extend Qubit Lifespan In Pivotal Validation of Quantum Computing

Keeping enough qubits in their ideal state long enough for computations has so far proved a challenge.

The Biggest EV Battery Recycling Plant In the US Is Open For Business

Ascend Elements’ new recycling plant in Covington, Georgia is processing used lithium-ion batteries and manufacturing scrap into useful materials for the clean energy transition.

== personally have no experience with shopping on Amazon

FTC Orders Supplement Maker To Pay $600K In First Case Involving Hijacked Amazon Reviews

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has approved a final consent order in its first-ever enforcement action over a case involving review hijacking, or when a marketer steals consumer reviews of another product to boost the sales of its own.

American IQ Scores Have Rapidly Dropped, Proving the ‘Reverse Flynn Effect’

Are we really getting less intelligent? Here’s the truth.

Tesla To Open Megapack Battery Factory In Shanghai

Tesla will open a new Megafactory in Shanghai that is capable of producing 10,000 Megapacks a year, the company announced Sunday.

Z-Library Plans To Let Users Share Physical Books Through ‘Z-Points’

Z-Library continues to develop its shadow library and now plans to expand its services to the physical book market. It envisions a book ‘sharing’ market, where its millions of users can pick up paperbacks at dedicated “Z-Points” around the globe.

== ?$ nyt

Biden Administration To Curb Toxic Pollutants From Chemical Plants

The rule would chiefly affect plants along the Gulf Coast, the Ohio River Valley and in West Virginia.

EPA Said To Propose Rules Meant To Drive Up Electric Car Sales Tenfold == yjc

If We Lose the Internet Archive, We’re Screwed

The Internet Archive was founded in 1996. A federal judge recently ruled that its Emergency Library program violated copyright law.

‘Rest of World’ Photo Contest Highlight’s Tech and Solar’s Impact

We asked our readers to send us images of technology’s impact in their communities — as seen from their lenses.

== very cool

Speedy Black Hole in Intergalactic Space Could be Creating a Trail of Stars

There’s an invisible monster on the loose, barreling through intergalactic space so fast that if it were in our solar system, it could travel from Earth to the Moon in 14 minutes.

Sask. scientists developing vaccines to protect birds and humans from avian flu

H5N1 has killed or infected 7.2M birds since 2021: Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Fully Recyclable Printed Electronics Produced Using Water Instead of Toxic Chemicals

First-of-its-kind demonstration suggests a more environmentally friendly future for the electronics industry is possible.

== ?$

Better Electronic Sensors Mean Militaries Need Better Camouflage

A deadly game of hide and seek. Camouflage ranks highly among the arts of war.

Will AI Disrupt the Videogame Industry?

ai is now disrupting the industry that helped bring it into being. Every part of entertainment stands to be affected by generative ai, which digests inputs of text, image, audio or video to create new outputs of the same.

See Uranus’ Rings in Stunning New Image from the Webb Telescope

Following in the footsteps of the Neptune image released in 2022, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has taken a stunning image of the solar system’s other ice giant, the planet Uranus.

How Old Coal Mines Are Now Producing Clean Geothermal Energy

Old coal mines could still have a role to play in heating homes – but this time, without burning fossil fuels. Martha Henriques explores the buildings heated from the warmth of long-disused mine workings.

A Quandary as EV Makers Hunt for Metals: Unleash the Deep Sea Robots?

As automakers scour the planet for the metals it will take to build tens of millions of electric cars, they are deliberately taking a detour around one of the only places on earth where so much of what they need is laying around and available to be plucked.

The Search for Alien Life Moves to Icy Moons

Icy moons with vast oceans are the latest candidates for alien life.