Almost eight in ten of the biggest news websites in the UK and US are now blocking AI training bots. A recent analysis by Buzzstream shows that 79% of the top 100 news websites are blocking at least one crawler used for AI training, such as GPTBot and ClaudeBot

In the first half of the 2020s alone, researchers delivered the first effective vaccines against four different diseases: Covid-19, malaria, RSV and chikungunya. No previous decade matched that output

article argues that Elon Musk's social media platform X must be banned due to its enabling of AI-generated explicit images, including child pornography, and its promotion of far-right content. It criticizes the lack of swift action by regulators and politicians, despite the clear harm being caused to women and children

12 Real-Life Inventions That Were Inspired By Science Fiction

R.I.P. MTV

This article discusses the invention of a new type of plant-based plastic by researchers in Japan that fully degrades in seawater without leaving behind any microplastics

Privacy browser extensions misled users and sold 8 million AI chat logs, exposing sensitive conversations for profit without consent

A landmark study by epidemiologist Sam Goldman compared Marines stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, where trichloroethylene (TCE) had contaminated the water supply for approximately 35 years, against those at Camp Pendleton in California, which has clean water. Marines exposed to TCE at Lejeune were 70% more likely to develop Parkinson's.

This news article details an investigation by German journalism students into Russian-linked vessels circling off the Dutch and German coast. The students connected these ships to drone swarms over military bases, uncovering a pattern of suspicious activity involving multiple ships and drone incidents. The investigation revealed connections to Russian military-linked facilities and raised concerns about potential espionage and sabotage activities

For anyone who wants to avoid using AI images, this site has public domain images by theme and category. There's some really great artwork that's free to use

Space factory: German firm to test 3D-printing solar panels in orbit by 2027

Africa's forests have switched from absorbing to emitting carbon, new study finds

by University of Leicester

Teheran muss WAS BITTE??

Ambience Antarctica is an Internet radio station inspired by Antarctica, with ambient music accompanied by visuals from Earth's least-populous continent. Features almost-live webcams and satellite imagery, weather forecasts, flyby videos, a daily quote, and occasional wildlife to spot

At the same time, though, the scope of private life itself seems to be shrinking. Our experiences are flattened by the mass culture that everyone consumes, regurgitates, remixes (and that AI is now beginning to remix for us). Social science and marketing—combined with coercive technology—turn what seem, from the first-person perspective, like deeply personal choices into statistically predictable and controllable behaviors

double strike by captain obvious and captain karma

Foreign hackers breached the National Nuclear Security Administration's Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC) by exploiting unpatched Microsoft SharePoint

World’s major cities hit by 25% leap in extremely hot days since the 1990s

Capitals from London to Tokyo need urgent action to protect people from deadly high temperatures, analysts say

In the 1970s, the radical leftwing German terrorist organisation may have spread fear through public acts of violence – but its inner workings were characterised by vanity and incompetence

A month. Reviewing slop produced by an LLM. What are the cost savings of paying ChatGPT $20 a month and then having a literal team of engineers try and review and merge the code?