"New research suggests ash and soot from burning wildlands has caused more than 41,000 excess deaths annually from 2011 to 2020," reports the Los Angeles Times:

By 2050, as global warming makes large swaths of North America hotter and drier, the annual death toll from smoke could reach between 68,000 and 71,000, without stronger preventive and public health measures... ... [ Read it >> ]

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Many Apple Watches will soon be able to alert users about possible high blood pressure, reports Reuters — culminating six years of research and development:

Apple used AI to sort through the data from 100,000 people enrolled in a heart and movement study it originally launched in 2019 to see whether it could find features in the signal data from the watch's main heart-related sensor that it could then match up with traditional blood pressure measurements, said Sumbul Ahmad Desai [Apple's vice president of health]. After multiple layers of machine learning, Apple came up with an algorithm that it then validated with a specific study of 2,000 participants. ... [ Read it >> ]

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"Astronomers have spotted a quasi-moon near Earth," reports CNN, "and the small space rock has likely been hanging out near our planet unseen by telescopes for about 60 years, according to new research."
The newly discovered celestial object, named 2025 PN7, is a type of near-Earth asteroid that orbits the sun but sticks close to our planet. Like our world, 2025 PN7 takes one year to complete an orbit around the sun... ... [ Read it >> ]

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Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: Over at the Communications of the ACM, Bard College CS Prof Valerie Barr explains why she's Feeling Cranky About AI and CS Education. Having seen CS education go through a number of we-have-to-teach-this moments over the decades — introductory programming languages, the Web, Data Science, etc. — Barr turns her attention to the next hand-wringing "what will we do" CS education moment with AI. "We're jumping through hoops without stopping first to question the run-away train," Barr writes...... [ Read it >> ]

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"On a recent assignment to test defenses, Dave Brauchler of the cybersecurity company NCC Group tricked a client's AI program-writing assistant into executing programs that forked over the company's databases and code repositories," reports the Washington Post.

"We have never been this foolish with security," Brauchler said...... [ Read it >> ]

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Long-time Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot shared this report from ZME Science
Researchers from the University of Turku, in collaboration with Aalto University and Wageningen University, have developed a bio-based UV protection film for solar cells that not only blocks nearly all harmful ultraviolet light but also outperforms commercial plastic films. The key ingredient is a water extract made from red onion skins... ... [ Read it >> ]

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In a debate on employment rights, a U.K. Parliament member brought up Meta's former director of global public policy Sarah Wynn-Williams

Louise Haigh, the former Labour transport secretary, said Wynn-Williams was facing a fine of $50,000 (£37,000) every time she breached an order secured by Meta preventing her from talking disparagingly about the company... "I am sure that the whole house and the government will stand with Sarah as we pass this legislation to ensure that whistleblowers and those with the moral courage to speak out are always protected...." ... [ Read it >> ]

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A July combat training exercise involved a satellite dish-style antenna that "could fire enough electromagnetic energy to fry the satellite 22,000 miles away," reports the Washington Post. But "Instead, the salvo would be more covert — millisecond pulses of energy that would subtly disrupt the satellite's signals, which U.S. military forces were using to communicate in the Pacific Ocean."... [ Read it >> ]

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Last week the Guardian reported on "thousands of AI workers contracted for Google through Japanese conglomerate Hitachi's GlobalLogic to rate and moderate the output of Google's AI products, including its flagship chatbot Gemini... and its summaries of search results, AI Overviews."... [ Read it >> ]

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Writing in Communications of the ACM, former Go tech lead Russ Cox warns we need to keep improving defenses of software supply chains, highlighting "promising approaches that should be more widely used" and "areas where more work is needed."
There are important steps we can take today, such as adopting software signatures in some form, making sure to scan for known vulnerabilities regularly, and being ready to update and redeploy software when critical new vulnerabilities are found. More development should be shifted to safer languages that make vulnerabilities and attacks less likely. We also need to find ways to fund open source development to make it less susceptible to takeover by the mere offer of free help. Relatively small investments in OpenSSL and XZ development could have prevented both the Heartbleed vulnerability and the XZ attack. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Near Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, the Five Stones coffee shop advertised for a barista a few months ago — and started getting resumes from "people who listed Microsoft and other tech companies," writes the Wall Street Journal:

The applicants typically had master's degrees and experience in graphic design or marketing roles, Andrews said — sometimes senior ones. They were applying to jobs at Five Stones that would pay Redmond's minimum wage, $16.66 an hour. Five Stones hasn't yet hired such candidates because the coffee shop gives priority to more traditional entry-level baristas, like high-schoolers... ... [ Read it >> ]

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Mickey Mouse's first movie Steamboat Willie entered the public domain in 2024.
Now one of America's largest personal injury firms is suing Disney, reports the Associated Press, "in an effort to get a ruling that would allow it to use Steamboat Willie in advertisements..."
[The law firm said] it had reached out to Disney to make sure the entertainment company wouldn't sue them if they used images from the animated film for their TV and online ads. Disney's lawyers responded by saying they didn't offer legal advice to third parties, according to the lawsuit. Morgan & Morgan said it was filing the lawsuit to get a decision because it otherwise feared being sued by Disney for trademark infringement if it used Steamboat Willie. ... [ Read it >> ]

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When Meta finally unveiled its newest smart glasses, CEO Mark Zuckerberg "drew more snickers than applause," wrote the New York Times. (Mashable points out a video call failing onstage followed by an unsuccessful recipe demonstration.)

Meta chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth later explained the funny reason their demo didn't work, reports TechCrunch, while answering questions on Instagram:... [ Read it >> ]

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The consumer advocacy nonprofit PIRG (Public Interest Research Group) is now petitioning Microsoft to reconsider pulling support for Windows 10 in 2025, since "as many as 400 million perfectly good computers that can't upgrade to Windows 11 will be thrown out." In a petition addressed to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the group warned the October 14 end of free support could cause "the single biggest jump in junked computers ever, and make it impossible for Microsoft to hit their sustainability goals."... [ Read it >> ]

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The consumer advocacy nonprofit PIRG (Public Interest Research Group) is now petitioning Microsoft to reconsider pulling support for Windows 10 in 2025, since "as many as 400 million perfectly good computers that can't upgrade to Windows 11 will be thrown out." In a petition addressed to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the group warned the October 14 end of free support could cause "the single biggest jump in junked computers ever, and make it impossible for Microsoft to hit their sustainability goals."... [ Read it >> ]

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An anonymous reader shared this article from the Washington Post:

A student taking an online quiz sees a button appear in their Chrome browser: "homework help." Soon, Google's artificial intelligence has read the question on-screen and suggests "choice B" as the answer. The temptation to cheat was suddenly just two clicks away Sept. 2, when Google quietly added a "homework help" button to Chrome, the world's most popular web browser. The button has been appearing automatically on the kinds of course websites used by the majority of American college students and many high-schoolers, too. Pressing it launches Google Lens, a service that reads what's on the page and can provide an "AI Overview" answer to questions — including during tests. ... [ Read it >> ]

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An anonymous reader shared this report from the Washington Post:

Finnish tech firm Bluefors, a maker of ultracold refrigerator systems critical for quantum computing, has purchased tens of thousands of liters of Helium-3 from the moon — spending "above $300 million" — through a commercial space company called Interlune. The agreement, which has not been previously reported, marks the largest purchase of a natural resource from space. ... [ Read it >> ]

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A large U.S.-made bomb left over from World War II was discovered at a construction site, reports the Associated Press:

Police said the bomb was 1.5 meters (nearly 5 feet) in length and weighed about 1,000 pounds (450 kilograms). It was discovered by construction workers in Quarry Bay, a bustling residential and business district on the west side of Hong Kong island... [A police official] said that because of "the exceptionally high risks associated with its disposal," approximately 1,900 households involving 6,000 individuals were "urged to evacuate swiftly." The operation to deactivate the bomb began late Friday and lasted until around 11:30 a.m. Saturday. No one was injured in the operation. ... [ Read it >> ]

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"A cyberattack targeting check-in and boarding systems disrupted air traffic and caused delays at several of Europe's major airports on Saturday," reports the Associated Press.

"While the impact on travelers appeared to be limited, experts said the intrusion exposed vulnerabilities in security systems."... [ Read it >> ]

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"Betelgeuse may have competition for the most exciting star about to go nova near Earth," writes Space.com.

"Astronomers have discovered the secret of a strange star system that has baffled them for years, finding it contains a dead star about to erupt after overfeeding on a stellar companion."... [ Read it >> ]

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Fast Company ran a contrarian take about AI from entrepreneur/thought leader Faisal Hoque, who argues there's three AI bubbles.

The first is a classic speculative bubble, with asset prices soaring above their fundamental values (like the 17th century's Dutch "tulip mania"). "The chances of this not being a bubble are between slim and none..."... [ Read it >> ]

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The Shai-Hulud malware campaign impacted hundreds of npm packages across multiple maintainers, reports Koi Security, including popular libraries like @ctrl/tinycolor and some packages maintained by CrowdStrike.

Malicious versions embed a trojanized script (bundle.js) designed to steal developer credentials, exfiltrate secrets, and persist in repositories and endpoints through automated workflows. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Long-time Slashdot reader robinsrowe shared this report from the Register:

The C++ standards committee abandoned a detailed proposal to create a rigorously safe subset of the language, according to the proposal's co-author, despite continuing anxiety about memory safety. "The Safety and Security working group voted to prioritize Profiles over Safe C++. Ask the Profiles people for an update. Safe C++ is not being continued," Sean Baxter, author of the cutting-edge Circle C++ compiler, commented in June this year. The topic came up as developers like Simone Bellavia noted the anniversary of the proposal and discovered a decision had been made on Safe C++. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Micro- and nanoplastic particles "infiltrate all systems of the body, including the brain," notes the University of Rhode Island, "where they can accumulate and trigger Alzheimer's-like conditions, according to a new study by researchers in the University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy." ... [ Read it >> ]

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"OpenAI's video generation tool, Sora, can create high-definition clips of just about anything you could ask for..." reports the Washington Post.
"But OpenAI has not specified which videos it grabbed to make Sora, saying only that it combined 'publicly available and licensed data'..."... [ Read it >> ]

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Libraries nationwide are fielding patron requests for books that don't exist after AI-generated summer reading lists appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times and Philadelphia Inquirer earlier this year. Reference librarian Eddie Kristan told 404 Media the problem began in late 2022 following GPT-3.5's release but escalated dramatically after the newspapers published lists created by a freelancer using AI without verification. ... [ Read it >> ]

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The high seas, the vast waters beyond any one country's jurisdiction, cover nearly half the planet. On Friday, a hard-fought global treaty to protect the "cornucopia of biodiversity" living there cleared a final hurdle and will become international law. From a report: The High Seas Treaty, as it is known, was ratified by a 60th nation, Morocco, crossing the threshold for United Nations treaties to go into effect. Two decades in the making, it allows for the establishment of enormous conservation zones in international waters. Environmentalists hailed it as a historic moment. The treaty "is a conservation opportunity that happens once in a generation, if that," said Lisa Speer, who directs the International Oceans Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. ... [ Read it >> ]

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The Leon Thevenin, Africa's only permanently stationed cable repair ship, maintains over 60,000 kilometers of undersea internet infrastructure from Madagascar to Ghana. The 43-year-old vessel employs a 60-person crew who perform precision repairs on fiber-optic cables that carry data for Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon -- companies that consumed 3.6 billion megabits per second of bandwidth in 2023. ... [ Read it >> ]

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The Washington Post: The Trump administration unveiled a new crackdown Friday on journalists at the Pentagon, saying it will require them to pledge they won't gather any information - even unclassified - that hasn't been expressly authorized for release, and will revoke the press credentials of those who do not obey. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Amazon's logistics network will now fulfill orders placed on Walmart.com, the company announced at its Accelerate seller conference, creating a surreal arrangement where the e-commerce giant directly supports its biggest retail rival's online operations. Third-party sellers can now use Amazon's Multichannel Fulfillment service to automatically process Walmart orders through direct integration. The packages arrive in unbranded boxes since Walmart prohibits Amazon-branded deliveries to its customers. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Just days after federal data revealed average reading, math and science scores dropped among certain grades since before the coronavirus pandemic, a U.S. Senate panel on Thursday picked apart the root causes and methods for students' academic improvement. From a report: The hearing in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions centered on the "state of K-12 education" -- which GOP members on the committee described as "troubling" -- in light of recent data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Gallup: A record-low 35% of Americans are satisfied with the quality of education that K-12 students receive in the U.S. today, marking an eight-percentage-point decline since last year. This is one point below the previous historical low recorded in 2000 and 2023 for this Gallup question that dates back to 1999. ... [ Read it >> ]

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U.S. President Donald Trump plans to impose a new $100,000 application fee for H-1B worker visas, a White House official said, potentially dealing a big blow to the technology sector that relies heavily on skilled workers from India and China. From a report: As part of his broader immigration crackdown, the Republican president was expected to sign a proclamation as early as Friday restricting entry under the H-1B visa program unless the application fee is paid, the official said. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Microsoft will increase Xbox Series X and Series S console prices in the United States on October 3. The Series X rises to $649.99 from $599.99 and the 512GB Series S increases to $399.99 from $379.99. The 1TB Series S moves to $449.99 from $429.99. The Series X Digital Edition reaches $599.99 from $549.99 and the 2TB Galaxy Black Special Edition climbs to $799.99 from $729.99. Microsoft cited macroeconomic changes for the increases. Console prices outside the US and controller and headset prices domestically remain unchanged. The company raised console prices globally in May.... [ Read it >> ]

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Meta is moving to break into the wholesale power-trading business to better manage the massive electricity needs of its data centers. Bloomberg: The company, which owns Facebook, filed an application with US regulators this week seeking authorization to do so. A Meta representative said it was a natural next step to participate in energy markets as it looks to power operations with clean energy. ... [ Read it >> ]

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An analysis of tens of thousands of research-paper submissions has shown a dramatic increase in the presence of text generated using AI in the past few years, an academic publisher has found. Nature: The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) found that 23% of abstracts in manuscripts and 5% of peer-review reports submitted to its journals in 2024 contained text that was probably generated by large language models (LLMs). The publishers also found that less than 25% of authors disclosed their use of AI to prepare manuscripts, despite the publisher mandating disclosure for submission. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Chinese consumer tech giant Xiaomi will remotely fix a flaw in the assisted driving system on over 110,000 of its popular SU7 electric cars, the firm and regulators said Friday, months after a deadly crash involving the model. From a report: China's tech companies and automakers have poured billions of dollars into smart-driving technology, a new battleground in the country's cutthroat domestic car market. But Beijing has moved to tighten safety rules after a Xiaomi SU7 in assisted driving mode crashed and killed three college students this year. It also raised concerns over the advertising of cars as being capable of autonomous driving. On Friday, the State Administration for Market Regulation said Xiaomi's highway assisted driving system showed insufficient recognition, warning and handling ability in some extreme driving conditions.... [ Read it >> ]

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US wholesale electricity prices have nearly doubled since 2020, rising faster than consumer rates across most regional grid operators. Analysis of location marginal pricing data from 17 trading hubs shows average wholesale costs increased from baseline 2020 levels to peaks 2-4 times higher by 2022, before partially recovering. Consumer electricity prices rose 35% during the same period. ... [ Read it >> ]

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alternative_right writes: Austria's armed forces have switched from Microsoft's Office programs to the open-source LibreOffice package. The reason for this is not to save on software license fees for around 16,000 workstations. "It was very important for us to show that we are doing this primarily (...) to strengthen our digital sovereignty, to maintain our independence in terms of ICT infrastructure and (...) to ensure that data is only processed in-house," emphasizes Michael Hillebrand from the Austrian Armed Forces' Directorate 6 ICT and Cyber. ... [ Read it >> ]

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An anonymous reader shares a report: JM Video, one of only two remaining DVD rental stores in Paris, is a focal point for film lovers and visited by actors like Brad Pitt when they are in the city, but the ever-growing competition of streaming platforms means this Paris institution is fighting for survival. Choice is not the problem: JM Video has a library of more than 50,000 films, more than some 5,000 on offer at any time on Netflix and more than the catalogues of all the major streaming actors combined. "It's one of the few places in Paris with a real film collection, you can find things here that you cannot find anywhere else," said movie buff Virginie Breton, who rents DVDs several times a week. But not enough to keep JM Video afloat. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Valve is dropping support for Steam running on 32-bit versions of Windows, starting January 1, 2026. A report adds and comments: Steam has been available on Windows for more than two decades and, therefore, was built with 32-bit systems in mind. Today, every modern computer is 64-bit, with compatibility layers built in to support older 32-bit apps. So, even though 32-bit apps have carried forward, there's really no place for 32-bit operating systems anymore -- which is why Valve is axing support for them.... [ Read it >> ]

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An anonymous reader shares a report: SoftBank Group will lay off nearly 20% of its Vision Fund team globally as it shifts resources to founder Masayoshi Son's large-scale AI bets in the United States, according to a memo seen by Reuters and a source familiar with the plan. The cuts mark the third round of layoffs at the Japanese investment conglomerate's flagship fund since 2022. Vision Fund currently has over 300 employees globally. Unlike previous rounds, when the group was saddled with major losses, the latest reductions come after the fund last month reported its strongest quarterly performance since June 2021, driven by gains in public holdings such as Nvidia and South Korean e-commerce firm Coupang. The move signals a pivot away from a broad portfolio of startup investments. While the fund will continue to make new bets, remaining staff will dedicate more resources to Son's ambitious AI initiatives, such as the proposed $500 billion Stargate project -- an initiative to build a vast network of U.S. data centers in partnership with OpenAI, the source added.... [ Read it >> ]

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Security researcher Dirk-jan Mollema discovered two vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Entra ID identity platform that could have granted attackers administrative access to virtually all Azure customer accounts worldwide. The flaws involved legacy authentication systems -- Actor Tokens issued by Azure's Access Control Service and a validation failure in the retiring Azure Active Directory Graph API. ... [ Read it >> ]

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft is adding a whole load of AI agents to Teams today, promising Copilot assistants for every channel, meeting, and community. The new agents will also work across SharePoint and Viva Engage, and are rolling out for Microsoft 365 Copilot users. ... [ Read it >> ]

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China's economy increasingly relies on 200 million "flexible workers" who lack formal employment contracts, pensions and urban residency permits despite comprising 25% of the national workforce and 40% of urban workers. The demographic includes 40 million day-wage factory workers and 84 million platform economy workers performing deliveries and ride-share driving. Factory gig workers average 26 years old, are 80% male, and 75-80% single and childless. These workers face systemic exclusions from urban benefits including healthcare, schooling and property ownership due to lacking urban hukou residency permits. ... [ Read it >> ]

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If you're wondering what effect Intel's blockbuster deal with Nvidia will have on its existing product roadmaps, Intel has one message for you: it won't. PCWorld: "We're not discussing specific roadmaps at this time, but the collaboration is complementary to Intel's roadmap and Intel will continue to have GPU product offerings," an Intel spokesman told my colleague, Brad Chacos, earlier today. I heard similar messaging from other Intel representatives. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Google has added Gemini features to Chrome for all desktop users in the US browsing in English following a limited release to paying subscribers in May. The update introduces a Gemini button in the browser that launches a chatbot capable of answering questions about page content and synthesizing information from multiple tabs. Users can remove the Gemini sparkle icon from Chrome's interface. ... [ Read it >> ]

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The Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general from seven states filed an 84-page lawsuit Thursday in federal court in California against Live Nation Entertainment and its Ticketmaster subsidiary. The suit alleges the companies knowingly allow ticket brokers to use multiple accounts to circumvent purchase limits and acquire thousands of tickets per event for resale at higher prices. ... [ Read it >> ]

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An anonymous reader shares a report: A software update rolling out to Samsung's Family Hub refrigerators in the US is putting ads on the fridges for the first time. The "promotions and curated advertisements" are coming despite Samsung insisting to The Verge in April that it had "no plans" to do so. Samsung is calling it a pilot program for now, which -- I kid you not -- is meant to "strengthen the value" of owning a Samsung smart fridge.... [ Read it >> ]

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Chinese AI developer DeepSeek said it spent $294,000 on training its R1 model, much lower than figures reported for U.S. rivals, in a paper that is likely to reignite debate over Beijing's place in the race to develop artificial intelligence. Reuters: The rare update from the Hangzhou-based company -- the first estimate it has released of R1's training costs -- appeared in a peer-reviewed article in the academic journal Nature published on Wednesday. ... [ Read it >> ]

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