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Voyager 2 cheats the power budget for another year
Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have carried out a carefully coordinated power-saving procedure, dubbed the “Big Bang,” to extend the working life of instruments aboard the veteran Voyager 2 spacecraft. The manoeuvre involved switching off some devices and replacing others with lower-power alternatives simultaneously, while keeping the probe warm enough to keep functioning, and…
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Major road through Sheffield city centre closed for up to three weeks for removal of kerbs
Low kerbs designed to narrow the carriageway and make drivers slow down are being removed
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Teachers need help with AI. A union is offering training – with $23m in funding from big tech
The American Federation of Teachers, a major US labour union with around 1.8 million members, has launched a National Academy for AI Instruction to train educators on using artificial intelligence in the classroom. The $23m programme, funded entirely by Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic, aims to train 400,000 teachers over five years, but has proved controversial:…
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‘It confirmed my flaws’: women are paying for face scans that score beauty and suggest excessive procedures
An investigation by the Guardian examines the rise of paid “facial analysis” services, such as Qoves, Facemaxify and Epica, which claim to use science to score users’ attractiveness and recommend cosmetic procedures. These tools have grown out of “looksmaxxing” culture, an online movement that treats beauty as something quantifiable and improvable through surgery and injectables,…
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EA Studios Brace for Layoff Bloodbath as New Owner Debt Demands $700 Million Cost Cuts
Electronic Arts is reportedly preparing widespread cost-cutting measures, including likely layoffs and studio closures, as it works to pay down the roughly $18 billion (£14 billion) debt taken on during its recent buyout. The buyout, by a consortium comprising Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, was completed the day before this…
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Disney Admits Live-Action Moana and Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu ‘Underperformed’, But Says The Movies Still Helped Shift Plenty of Merchandise
Disney’s live-action Moana and Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu both underperformed at the box office, but their ticket sales are only part of the story, the company has argued.
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U.S. missile stockpiles dwindle. And, FDA weighs approval of flu shots with mRNA tech
The US Army has nearly run down its stockpile of long-range precision missiles, including Precision Strike Missiles and ATACMS, amid its ongoing conflict with Iran, NPR reports. These weapons allow strikes from hundreds of miles away, reducing risk to pilots, but replenishing them can take years, raising concerns about America’s preparedness for future conflicts and…
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Drone found at German airport after cargo plane collides with object mid-air
A DHL cargo plane made an emergency landing in Hanover after colliding with an unidentified object while climbing away from Leipzig airport, and police separately found a drone, reportedly fitted with explosives and a detonator, near a Ukrainian Antonov cargo aircraft at the same airport overnight. German authorities confirmed the incident caused serious air traffic…
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Indian EV startup River raises $120M Series C to scale production, launch more models
Indian electric two-wheeler startup River has raised $120 million in a Series C funding round to scale up manufacturing and expand its product line-up, bringing its total funding to $144 million. The round, led by Elev8 Venture Partners and Claypond Capital, reflects growing investor confidence in River’s ability to scale production after it built its…