Could The Next Big Solar Storm Fry the Grid?

The odds are low that in any given year a storm big enough to cause effects this widespread will happen.

Hydro Dams Are Struggling To Handle the World’s Intensifying Weather

Climate change is robbing some hydro dams of water while oversupplying others—forcing managers to employ new forecasting technology and clever strategies to capitalize on what they have.

Antarctica Has Lost 7.5tn Tonnes of Ice Since 1997, Scientists Find

Study finds more than 40% of ice shelves have shrunk, with millions of tonnes of freshwater entering ocean.

Canon Begins Selling Chip Machines To Rival World’s Best by ASML

Japanese optics specialist seeks to close gap with Dutch rival. Chipmaking machinery has been focus of US sanctions on China.

AI Report 2023

Essays and insights from the world’s largest data science and machine learning community

Woman’s Experimental Bionic Hand Passes Major Test

The Mia Hand prosthetic, fused with bone and connected to the nervous system, has given its owner a new lease on life and much less phantom pain.

What you need to know when disaster strikes

CBC’s Marketplace got tips from across the country on what you should do in an emergency

== seen something on this before, but…
Emerging tree diseases are on the rise, threatening the planet’s largest plants

Trees are also susceptible to new pathogens, and scientists worry a growing number of species could be at risk as climate change makes tree populations more vulnerable.

Google To Defend Generative AI Users From Copyright Claims

…it will defend users of generative AI systems in its Google Cloud and Workspace platforms if they are accused of intellectual property violations…

Stockholm bans most combustion engine cars from its city center

Scheme goes further than most, as Swedish city tries to reduce pollution and noise.

== !!
Coin flips don’t appear to have 50/50 odds after all

A study suggests it’s 50.8% likely to land on the side that started facing up.

The US community that banned cars

A new housing development outside Phoenix is looking towards European cities for inspiration and shutting out the cars. So far residents love it.

== $?, lengthy
Think that your plastic is being recycled? Think again.

Plastic is cheap to make and shockingly profitable. It’s everywhere. And we’re all paying the price.

Croatia Wants To Turn Superhot Underground Lake Into a 16MW Geothermal Power Plant

Countries across the EU are ramping up efforts to harness the Earth’s heat

World-First Trial of Gene Therapy To Cure Form of Deafness Begins

Children born with hearing loss due to the genetic condition auditory neuropathy will be given a pioneering gene therapy in a new trial.

== yjc
CBC Stops Broadcasting Official Time Signal

Segment connected Canadians, kept the country on time for over 80 yearsSegment connected Canadians, kept the country on time for over 80 years

Gene-edited pig kidney keeps monkey alive for 2 years

Kidneys were genetically engineered to reduce the risk of rejection by primates.

== UK perspective but expect similar in North America and most of the world
Nearly half a billion small tech items thrown away

Nearly half a billion small electricals such as cables, lights, mini fans and disposable vapes, were thrown away last year, research from Material Focus has shown.

== yjc, I do have Windows Subsystem for Linux installed on my development pc,
== not sure of current version, and it has proven useful in a couple of cases
Microsoft Gives Unexpected Tutorial on How To Install Linux

You may need it – Windows 10 is no longer a free upgrade.

NASA provides the first look at newly returned asteroid sample

Material contains carbon and water in the form of water-bearing clay minerals

Deta’s Space OS Aims To Build the First ‘Personal Cloud Computer’

The startup Deta wants to bring back software ownership and personal privacy without losing all the things that make the cloud era great.

California’s new law makes it easier for consumers to request the deletion of their data

Prior laws required Californians to contact each individual company.

California’s ‘right to repair’ bill is now California’s ‘right to repair’ law

Governor Newsom signed the legislation Tuesday, capping a multi-year campaign for its passage.

Charlottetown experiments with mini forests to speed up growth

Native plants densely planted, 1 metre apart, to make them compete and grow faster.

== yjc
World War Two experimental catapult unearthed by archaeologists

An experimental catapult designed to launch World War Two bomber planes into the sky has been excavated.

Private renters age faster, says Essex and Adelaide university research

They found renting privately, falling behind with rent payments or living in a home affected by pollution was linked with faster biological ageing.

== yjc
Wildlife Photographer of the Year: Horseshoe crab wins gold

A picture of a mysterious and other-worldly horseshoe crab has earned Laurent Ballesta the title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPY) 2023.

Facebook’s Sexist, Ageist Ad-Targeting Violates California Law, Court Finds

“Shocking” ruling could have “devastating effects,” tech law expert warns.

Climate Crisis Will Make Europe’s Beer Cost More and Taste Worse, Say Scientists

Experts say hop yields and quality will continue to drop by 2050 if farmers don’t adapt to higher temperatures.

== or if you are more into data dashboards
How to Design a Dashboard

Dashboards enable people to make decisions based on data. This book walks you through the process of defining, prototyping, building, and deploying a dashboard.

== if you are into data visualization this might be worth a read
Visual Vocabulary

There are so many ways to visualise data – how do we know which one to pick?

Bird flu: Scientists see gene editing hope for immune chickens

Researchers have developed gene-edited chickens that are partially resistant to bird flu.

Invisible ‘Demon’ Discovered in Odd Superconductor

Physicists have long suspected that hunks of metal could vibrate in a peculiar way that would be all but invisible. Now physicists have spotted these “demon modes.”

== yjc
Heura adds ‘York ham style slices’ to its 100%-plant-based vegan mix

The startup also claims the nutritional profile of the product is superior to meat (with a 65% protein density) — touting no additives, beyond a little salt if you consider that an additive, which they say is a first for the category.

== ??
A New Law of Physics Could Support the Idea We’re Living In a Simulation

A physicist from the University of Portsmouth has explored whether a new law of physics could support the theory that we’re living in a computer simulation.

Google’s AI stoplight program is now calming traffic in a dozen cities worldwide

Project Green Light is coming to even more intersections next year.

Pressure on nature threatens many flowering plants with extinction

Forty-five per cent of the world’s known flowering plants could be threatened by extinction, scientists have warned.

== wonder if it would work on the racoons and skunks fouling our yard
Man trains home cameras to help repel badgers and foxes

A man got so fed up with foxes and badgers fouling in his garden that he adapted cameras to help repel them.

Europe’s First Exascale Supercomputer Will Run On ARM Instead of X86

The Jupiter supercomputer will have Rhea ARM processors and Nvidia GPUs.

== I did not read the related paper.
Decomposing Language Models Into Understandable Components

We understand the math of the trained network exactly – each neuron in a neural network performs simple arithmetic – but we don’t understand why those mathematical operations result in the behaviors we see.

== potentially scary implications
Microplastics Detected in Clouds Hanging Atop Two Japanese Mountains

Findings regarding clouds above Mount Fuji and Mount Oyama highlight how microplastics are highly mobile.

== lengthy, and likely not of interest to most
Net Neutrality’s Court Fate Depends on Whether Broadband is ‘Telecommunications

We dig deep into how Supreme Court’s “major questions doctrine” could affect FCC.

How hackers are using Bluetooth to track police activity

Wireless devices are “constantly shouting” information about what cops are up to…

== $?
JWST should soon glimpse the very first stars born after the big bang

The James Webb Space Telescope is looking ever further back in the universe’s history and the unexpected behaviour it is spotting hints that the standard model of cosmology may need tweaking…

Will the Placebo Effect Mold How We See AI?

The preconceived notions people have about AI — and what they’re told before they use it — mold their experiences with these tools in ways researchers are beginning to unpack.

California Becomes First US State to Ban Four ‘Toxic’ Food Additives

…nation’s first law banning four “toxic” chemical food additives found in popular drinks, baked goods, candy and snacks.

== not a skill I have, but perhaps one of you…
Cryptographer Announces $12K Bounty to Find the Lost Seeds to 5 NIST Elliptic Curves

How were the seeds generated? Rumor has it that they are in turn hashes of English sentences…

== $?
How to fight an invasive American bug with a badder Russian one

The emerald ash borer has been killing trees across the U.S. for decades. A hardy parasitic wasp from Russia’s cold Far East could finally do the beetle in.

== $?
Meet the newest species of tarantula. It’s electric blue.

Blue is surprisingly rare in nature—which is why experts say this iridescent spider “is something meant to be seen.”

Australian Scientists Use ‘Age of Empires’ To Simulate Ant Warfare

A computer game once given away in kids’ cereal boxes is helping Australia eradicate an invasive ant species.

MIT Creates an Implantable Device That Produces Insulin

The device contains encapsulated cells that produce insulin, plus a tiny oxygen-producing factory that keeps the cells healthy.