"Daniel Dennett, philosophical giant who championed 'naturalism', dead at 82."

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Daniel Dennett, philosophical giant who championed “naturalism,” dead at 82

Philosopher Daniel Dennett dies at 82

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500+by Jennifer Ouellette / 1d

Enlarge / Daniel Dennett, a leading philosopher with provocative takes on consciousness, free will, and AI, has died at 82. (credit: Alonso Nichols/Tufts University ) World renowned philosopher Daniel Dennett, who championed controversial takes on consciousness and free will among other mind-bending subjects, died today at the age of 82. ( Full disclosure: This loss is personal. Dennett was our f

NASA may alter Artemis III to have Starship and Orion dock in low-Earth orbit

500+by Eric Berger / 1d

Enlarge / This image taken by NASA's Orion spacecraft shows its view just before the vehicle flew behind the Moon in 2022. (credit: NASA) Although NASA is unlikely to speak about it publicly any time soon, the space agency is privately considering modifications to its Artemis plan to land astronauts on the surface of the Moon later this decade. Multiple sources have confirmed that NASA is studyin

The fungi in our guts can make cases of Covid worse

93by WIRED / 2h

Enlarge / Computer illustration of Candida fungi. (credit: Kateryna Kon | Science Photo Library | Getty) Fungi are an indispensable part of your microbiome , keeping the body’s host of microorganisms healthy as part of a system of checks and balances. But when you’re hit by an infection , fungi can be thrown out of equilibrium with other organisms inside you, leading to a more severe infection an

YESTERDAY

War never changes: A Fallout fan’s spoiler-laden review of the new TV series

Fallout TV show praised by original creator

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by Samuel Axon / 1d

Enlarge / The nukes went off in 2077 in Fallout's universe. The show tells us more about this event than we've learned from the games before. (credit: Amazon) It's been just over a week since the Fallout TV series premiered on Amazon Prime, and one thing's for sure: It's a huge hit. You can hardly open a social media app without seeing content about it, the reviews are positive, and the active pl

Why are groups of university students modifying Cadillac Lyriq EVs?

by Ars Contributors / 1d

Enlarge / For the previous EcoCar 3 competition , student teams turned Camaro sportscars into hybrids. For the EcoCar EV challenge, their job is to improve on the Cadillac Lyriq. (credit: EcoCar) Across the country, teams of students at 15 different universities are in the middle of a four-year project, dissecting an electric vehicle and figuring out ways to make it even better. The program, call

The GMO tooth microbe that is supposed to prevent cavities

by Undark Magazine / 1d

Enlarge (credit: zhangshuang via Getty ) About seven years ago, Aaron Silverbook and his then-girlfriend, a biologist, were perusing old scientific literature online. “A romantic evening,” joked Silverbook. That night, he came across a study from 2000 that surprised him. Scientists had genetically engineered an oral bacterium that they said could possibly prevent tooth decay: “I read it and sort

APR 19, 2024

It’s cutting calories—not intermittent fasting—that drops weight, study suggests

Calories key for weight loss

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54by Beth Mole / 1d

Enlarge (credit: Getty | David Jennings ) Intermittent fasting, aka time-restricted eating, can help people lose weight—but the reason why may not be complicated hypotheses about changes from fasting metabolism or diurnal circadian rhythms. It may just be because restricting eating time means people eat fewer calories overall. In a randomized-controlled trial, people who followed a time-restricte

CNN, record holder for shortest streaming service, wants another shot

CNN plans digital shift

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by Scharon Harding / 1d

Enlarge (credit: Getty ) On March 29, 2022, CNN+ , CNN's take on a video streaming service, debuted. On April 28, 2022 , it shuttered, making it the fastest shutdown of any launched streaming service. Despite that discouraging superlative, CNN has plans for another subscription-based video streaming platform, Financial Times (FT) reported on Wednesday. Mark Thompson, who took CNN's helm in August

Long-lost model of the USS Enterprise returned to Roddenberry family

Long-lost USS Enterprise model returned

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65by Samuel Axon / 1d

Enlarge / This mysterious model appeared on eBay with little fanfare. (credit: eBay) The first-ever model of Star Trek's USS Enterprise NCC-1701 has been returned to the Roddenberry family, according to an ABC News report. The three-foot model was used to shoot the pilot and credits scene for Star Trek's original series in the 1960s and was used occasionally for shots throughout the series. (Typi

Cities: Skylines 2 team apologizes, makes DLC free and promises a fan summit

Cities: Skylines 2 devs apologize

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by Kevin Purdy / 1d

Enlarge / Like the Beach Properties DLC itself, this property looks a bit unfinished and in need of some focus. (credit: Paradox Interactive) Perhaps the first clue that something was not quite right about Beach Properties , the first $10 DLC "expansion" for the already off-kilter city-building sim Cities: Skylines 2 , was that it did not contain a real beach house, which one might consider a key

Netflix doc accused of using AI to manipulate true crime story

Netflix integrates AI in true crime storytelling

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by Ashley Belanger / 1d

What Jennifer Did Enlarge / A cropped image showing Raw TV's poster for the Netflix documentary What Jennifer Did , which features a long front tooth that leads critics to believe it was AI-generated. (credit: Raw TV ) An executive producer of the Netflix hit What Jennifer Did has responded to accusations that the true crime documentary used AI images when depicting Jennifer Pan, a woman currentl

Huawei phone has a pop-out camera lens, just like a point-and-shoot camera

by Ron Amadeo / 1d

Enlarge / The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra. That red ring around the camera lens is how far it moves. (credit: Huawei) Huawei is still out there making phones, even if it has been shunned by the US government and the US-aligned tech ecosystem. The latest phone has a new name: " Huawei Pura 70 ." While you wouldn't ever want to deal with the cobbled-together SoC or whatever is going on with Huawei's softw

Io: New image of a lake of fire, signs of permanent volcanism

Io's moon Io volcanic history

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23by John Timmer / 1d

Enlarge (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt/Thomas Thomopoulos ) Ever since the Voyager mission sent home images of Jupiter's moon Io spewing material into space, we've gradually built up a clearer picture of Io's volcanic activity. It slowly became clear that Io, which is a bit smaller than Mercury, is the most volcanically active body in the Solar System, with all that activity

Modder packs an entire Nintendo Wii into a box the size of a pack of cards

Short Stack creates tiny Wii

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by Andrew Cunningham / 1d

Enlarge / Its creator calls the "Short Stack" the world's smallest scale model replica of the Nintendo Wii (bottom). (credit: James Smith ) The miniaturization of retro tech has always been a major obsession for modders, from the person who fit an original NES into a Game Boy-sized portable to the person who made a mini-er version of Apple's Mac mini . One mod in this storied genre that caught ou

Roku forcing 2-factor authentication after 2 breaches of 600K accounts

Roku enhances security after breaches

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21by Kevin Purdy / 1d

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Everyone with a Roku TV or streaming device will eventually be forced to enable two-factor authentication after the company disclosed two separate incidents in which roughly 600,000 customers had their accounts accessed through credential stuffing. Credential stuffing is an attack in which usernames and passwords exposed in one leak are tried out against other accou

China orders Apple to remove Meta apps after “inflammatory” posts about president

Apple removes WhatsApp

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by Jon Brodkin / 1d

Enlarge / An Apple Store in Shanghai, China, on April 11, 2024. (credit: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images) Apple said it complied with orders from the Chinese government to remove the Meta-owned WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China. Apple also removed Telegram and Signal from China. "We are obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree,"

Crypto influencer guilty of $110M scheme that shut down Mango Markets

Jury deliberates $110M Mango Markets fraud

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by Ashley Belanger / 1d

Enlarge (credit: apomares | E+ ) A jury has unanimously convicted Avi Eisenberg in the US Department of Justice's first case involving cryptocurrency open-market manipulation, the DOJ announced Thursday. The jury found Eisenberg guilty of commodities fraud, commodities market manipulation, and wire fraud in connection with the manipulation on a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange called Mango M

This AI-controlled jet fighter has now flown against human pilots

USAF and DARPA achieve aerospace breakthroughs

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100+by Jonathan M. Gitlin / 1d

Enlarge / The X-62A VISTA Aircraft flying above Edwards Air Force Base, California. (credit: Kyle Brasier, U.S. Air Force) An AI test pilot has successfully flown a jet fighter in dogfights against human opponents. It's the latest development for DARPA's Air Combat Evaluation program, which is trying to develop aerospace AI agents that can be trusted to perform safely. Human test pilots have a bi

Tesla recalls all 3,878 Cybertrucks over faulty accelerator pedal cover

Tesla Cybertruck deliveries delayed unexpectedly

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300+by Jonathan M. Gitlin / 1d

Enlarge / The Tesla Cybertruck. (credit: Tesla) On Monday, we learned that Tesla had suspended customer deliveries of its stainless steel-clad electric pickup truck. Now, the automaker has issued a recall for all the Cybertrucks in customer hands—nearly 4,000 of them—in order to fix a problem with the accelerator pedal. It has come at an inconvenient time for Tesla, which is laying off more than

Password crackdown leads to more income for Netflix

Netflix ad revenue rises

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by Financial Times / 1d

Enlarge (credit: Bloomberg) Netflix’s crackdown on password sharing helped the streaming service blow past Wall Street’s earnings forecasts, but its shares fell after it said it planned to stop regularly disclosing its subscriber numbers. The company’s operating income surged 54 percent in the first quarter as it added 9.3 million subscribers worldwide, proving that the efforts to reduce password

Microsoft’s VASA-1 can deepfake a person with one photo and one audio track

Microsoft introduces VASA-1 for lifelike talking

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300+by Benj Edwards / 1d

Enlarge / A sample image from Microsoft for "VASA-1: Lifelike Audio-Driven Talking Faces Generated in Real Time." (credit: Microsoft ) On Tuesday, Microsoft Research Asia unveiled VASA-1 , an AI model that can create a synchronized animated video of a person talking or singing from a single photo and an existing audio track. In the future, it could power virtual avatars that render locally and do

Rocket Report: Starship could save Mars Sample Return; BE-4s for second Vulcan

by Stephen Clark / 2d

Enlarge / A BE-4 engine is moved into position on ULA's second Vulcan rocket. (credit: United Launch Alliance ) Welcome to Edition 6.40 of the Rocket Report! There was a lot of exciting news this week. For the first time, SpaceX launched a reusable Falcon 9 booster for a 20th flight. A few miles away at Cape Canaveral, Boeing and United Launch Alliance completed one of the final steps before the

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